LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH/11TH CENTURY BC

This well-cast, well-proportioned ding is related in form and style of cast decoration to a ding illustrated by R.W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, p. 469, no. 87. The columnar legs of the Sackler ding, however, are decorated with pendent blades below diagonal scroll bands, unlike the legs of the present vessel, which are undecorated.