LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

AN IMPORTANT AND RARE LARGE FINELY CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, ZUN
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The bronze vessel is cast standing on a high splayed foot, and has a wide flaring mouth rising from a narrow-shouldered mid-section. It is decorated in a mixture of flat and relief casting below the mouth rim with a band of upright blades above pairs of kui dragons. The shoulder has three evenly spaced high-relief ram's head masks separated by pairs of dragons centering on short flanges. The mid-section and the high foot are further decorated with flanges and with large taotie masks in relief and reserved on a ground of dense leiwen. The metal is of a dark-green patina with some malachite encrustation.
14 3/4 in. (37.4 cm.) high, wood stand, Japanese wood box

Provenance

The Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo, prior to 1989

Literature

Mizuno Seiichi, In Shu Seidoki to Gyoku, Tokyo, 1959, pl. 59
Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 42

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Lot Essay

This impressive vessel is representative of the refined and sophisticated bronze-casting style in the late Shang Period, and is a much rarer type to the more common examples such as those found in Fu Hao's tomb, illustrated in Yinxu Fu Hao Mu, Beijing, 1980, pl.XXII (1 and 2). Unlike the Fu Hao examples, on which the motifs of the decorative bands are flat with the leiwen surrounding it, the taotie and kui dragons of the current vessel are raised in relief, making the visual impact more pronounced and effective. The proportion of the current vessel, with its high foot and narrow shoulders, is also different from the broader and squatter shape of the Fu Hao examples.

Compare to another bronze zun of similar proportion and size, which also makes use of the relief decoration to emphasize the zoomorphic decorations, in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto, illustrated in Sen-Oku Hakuko Kan, Kyoto, 2002, no. 74. Other examples closer to the Fu Hao type are recorded: one in British Museum, illustrated by W. Watson in Ancient Chinese Bronzes, pl. 9a; one in the Pillsbury Collection, illustrated by B. Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred R. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pl.41; one in the Avery Brundage Collection, illustrated by B. Karlgren in 'Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums II', BMFEA 32, 1960, pp. 1-25, pl. 22a; and an example in the Sze Yuan Tang Collection, sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 813.

A Technical Examination Report is available upon request.

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