WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1100-771 BC)

Details

A RARE BRONZE TWO-PART STEAMER, YAN
WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1100-771 BC)
The lower tripod bowl is of li shape and is raised on three legs. It is decorated with taotie masks and applied with two arched handles. The upper bowl has a flaring rim and two free-standing dragon handles, and the interior base is perforated with cruciform steam vents. Each section is decorated below the rim with a shallow-relief band of scrolling birds on a leiwen ground, and has heavy areas of malachite encrustation.
14 ¼ in. (35.9 cm.) high

Provenance

The Ervika Foundation, Inc.; Christie's New York, 16 September 1998, lot 272.

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Nick Wilson

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Lot Essay

Two-part steamers are rare, and no other example of this particular shape appears to have been published. Compare the example illustrated in the Shanghai Museum Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery Catalogue, p. 24, dated Late Western Zhou. Compare, also, the yan, but with integral upper and lower parts, illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington DC, 1990, vol. II B, pp. 335-43, figs. 31-33.

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