LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, PENG ZHOU DING
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The body is raised on three columnar legs and is flat-cast around the sides with a band of cicada-filled triangles pendent from a narrow band below a band of taotie masks alternating with raised roundels decorated with whorl motifs, all with black infill that contrasts with the milky-green patina below the pair of bail handles that rise from the rim. A two-character inscription of a man carrying strings of cowrie shells while standing on a boat, reading peng zhou, is cast on an interior wall.
7 1/8 in. (18 cm.) high

Provenance

C. T. Loo & Co, New York, by 1941.
Frank Caro (successor to C. T. Loo), New York.
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections, and thence by descent within the family.

Literature

C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1941, no. 21.
B. Karlgren, 'Some New Bronzes in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities', B.M.F.E.A., No. 24, Stockholm, 1952, pp. 11-25, pl. 21, fig. 43 (detail).
Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), 2 vols., Tokyo, 1977, A15 (image), R170 (inscription).
Barnard and Cheung, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, no. 1267 (inscription only).
U. Lienert, Typology of the Ting in the Shang Dynasty. A Tentative Chronology of the Yin-Hsu Period, Köln, 2 vols., 1979, illus. 113.
Zhou Fagao, Sandai jijin wencun bu (Supplements to the Surviving Writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties), Taipei, 1980, no. 170 (inscription only).
G. Kuyayama, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, A Symposium, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983, pp. 134-5, figs. 17-19.
Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji, (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions), Taipei, 1983, no. 138 (inscription only).
Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 1 (plates), Tokyo, 1984, ding no. 58.
Yinzhou jinwen jicheng (Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, 1984, no. 1459 (inscription only).
R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C.1987, pp. 458-9, no. 83.
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng, (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 2, no. 689.

Lot Essay

The two-character inscription cast inside this ding can be found on other bronzes which are listed by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D. C., 1987, p. 459, no. 83.

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