18TH CENTURY

The unusual combination of a standing ram with a vase rising from its back may be an archaistic interpretation of bronze ram-form zun of late Shang date, such as the examples in the British Museum and the Nezu Museum, Tokyo, illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 121-22, figs. 173 and 175, respectively. In the bronze prototypes, the vessel is formed by two addorsed rams standing four-square that share a common body raised on four legs, an oblong neck cast with taotie masks rising from the back. The shape of the heads, and horns are quite similar to those of the present cloisonné ram, and on the present vessel a gu-form vase has replaced the oblong neck of the bronze vessels.