LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Archaic bronze Jue are more often found with conical caps on the post rather than waisted caps as seen on the current example. Jue with conical caps on the post often date earlier than late Shang, such as the example dated to the 13th century BC in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery accession number: S1987.53. The current jue further distinguishes itself with the addition of flanges on the body, which is rarely seen together with waisted caps. For other jue examples with both of these attributes, compare with an example excavated from late-Shang royal tombs in Hejiazhuang, Anyang, Henan Province, now in the collection of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, collection number: R001051; one from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection in the Seattle Art Museum, accession number: 49.200; and one in the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, accession number: S1987.53 (fig. 1). The first character of the inscription hui, does not appear to be found on any other extant archaic bronze vessels.

The present jue has been included in several important archaic bronzes publications, most notably in Luo Zhenyu’s seminal work Sandai jijin wencun, and in Kankarō kikkinzu, a catalogue of archaic bronzes in the collection of the late-Qing, early-Republican, and Manchuko politician Rong Hou compiled by the Japanese eminent archaeologist Umehara Sueji, respectively.