MID-WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH-9TH CENTURY BC

The decorative band on this rare ding may be a unique variation of quills, the quills enlarged and given prominence against the large scrolls of the leiwen ground heightened with black matrix. The shape of the vessel is similar to a ding from a tomb at Shaanxi Chang'an Puducun, dated Middle Western Zhou, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 269, fig. 14.6.