EARLY WESTERN ZHOU PERIOD (CIRCA 10TH CENTURY BC)

Details

A BRONZE FLARING VASE, ZUN
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU PERIOD (CIRCA 10TH CENTURY BC)
The bulbous mid-section is boldly cast with a wide band depicting taotie masks reserved on a leiwen ground, set between concentric bands encircling the flaring neck and the spreading foot. The underside of the base is decorated in low-relief with a stylised animal, and there is an inscription to the interior. The surface has a mottled dark-grey tone with light malachite encrustation.
9 ¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high

Provenance

The collection of Felix Guggenheim (1904-1976) , Beverly Hills, California.
With Rare Art, Inc., New York, before 14 January 1981.
From an important private European collection.

Literature

G. Kuwayama, Ancient Ritual Bronzes of China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976, p.44, no. 24.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The inscription consists of the five characters 'X zuo bao zun yi ' which can be read as : 'X made this precious sacrificial vessel.' X may be read as a name or a clan sign.

An Early Western Zhou gui in the Sackler Collections bears an identical inscription, illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, pp. 404-405.

Compare an almost identical zun in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, published in Wenwu 1995.6; and the similar Shang dynasty Fuxin zun in the National Palace Collection, Taiwan, illustrated in Masterworks of Chinese Bronze in the National Palace Museum (Supplement), Taipei, 1973, no. 23; p.103.

A zun of similar form, also with taotie set between concentric bands in the Arthur Sackler collection, is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C, vol. IIB, pp. 554-555.
See also a similar flared zun in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated in The Freer Chinese Bronzes, vol. I Catalogue, Washington 1967, pp.78-82.

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