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Lot Essay
The inscription, mu ning ri xin, can be translated as “(made for) mother Ri Xin from the Ning clan”. The character ri means day, which refers to the ten tiangan (Celestial Stems) naming system in the Shang dynasty. The Shang people assigned one of the ten Celestial Stems that corresponds to one day in a ten-day week to their deceased ancestors. In the present case, the celestial stem Xin was assigned to the female ancestor from the Ning clan for whom this ritual vessel was commissioned.
An almost identical jiao vessel bearing the same inscription is in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 36. This same inscription can also be found on six other bronzes in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, including a gui, a gu, a you, a fangyi, a fangzun and a zun, illustrated ibid., nos. 17, 58, 67, 76, 43, and 44, respectively. Taking into account the jiao sold at Sotheby’s London, 10 June 1986, lot 50 (right) as the companion to the present jiao, we have located nine ritual bronzes belonging to mother Ri Xin from the Ning clan.
The sumptuousness of the Mu Ning Ri Xin bronzes group, featuring rare and prized vessel types such as fangyi, fangzun, and jiao, may indicate a high status of the owner. A set of ten jiao, of very similar form and decoration, bearing Ya Zhi clan signs, was found in Guojiazhuang M160 at Anyang City, and is illustrated in Yue Hongbin, ed., Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, no. 119. Compare, also, a similar jiao formerly in the Qing imperial collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum -27- Bronze Ritual Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 107, no. 68. Based on the overall style of the Mu Ning Ri Xin group, the present jiao can be dated to the very end of the Yinxu period.
An almost identical jiao vessel bearing the same inscription is in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 36. This same inscription can also be found on six other bronzes in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, including a gui, a gu, a you, a fangyi, a fangzun and a zun, illustrated ibid., nos. 17, 58, 67, 76, 43, and 44, respectively. Taking into account the jiao sold at Sotheby’s London, 10 June 1986, lot 50 (right) as the companion to the present jiao, we have located nine ritual bronzes belonging to mother Ri Xin from the Ning clan.
The sumptuousness of the Mu Ning Ri Xin bronzes group, featuring rare and prized vessel types such as fangyi, fangzun, and jiao, may indicate a high status of the owner. A set of ten jiao, of very similar form and decoration, bearing Ya Zhi clan signs, was found in Guojiazhuang M160 at Anyang City, and is illustrated in Yue Hongbin, ed., Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, no. 119. Compare, also, a similar jiao formerly in the Qing imperial collection and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum -27- Bronze Ritual Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 107, no. 68. Based on the overall style of the Mu Ning Ri Xin group, the present jiao can be dated to the very end of the Yinxu period.