A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DOU

LATE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DOU
LATE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH CENTURY BC
The bowl, flanked by a pair of lug handles, is raised on a stem foot cast on the spreading base with a band of interlaced dragons reserved on a granulated ground, and is cast in low relief around the sides with a wide band of tiny interlocked, angular, bird-head scrolls that form a dense pattern, repeated in a narrow border below a concave band and above pendent leaf-shaped motifs. A similar band is repeated on the domed cover below a ropetwist band and the circular handle. The patina is of mottled milky green and dark grey color.
8½ in. (21.5 cm.) high

Provenance

The C.C. Wang Family Collection; Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1990, lot 56.

Literature

Annette Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese Art in the C.C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle and London, 1988, pl. 9.

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Lot Essay

The fine decoration, and its arrangement on this dou, are similar to that of a dou illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, p. 178, no. 24, where it is dated Eastern Zhou, late Spring and Autumn period, 6th century BC. However, on the Sackler dou the band of interlaced dragons appears on the everted crown of the cover, rather than on the flaring foot, as seen on the present vessel. Similar bands of interlaced dragons also appear on the everted crown of the cover, as well as on the flaring foot, of a similarly proportioned dou illustrated by B. Karlgren in A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1952, pp. 154-55, pls. 78-79. Other comparable dou with similar cast decoration and of similar proportions have been sold at Christie's New York and include one from the Sze Yuan Tang Collection, 16 September 2010, lot 881, and one from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 25 March 2010, lot 1017.

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