LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD WINE VESSEL, JUE
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The body is cast with a band of stylised taotie masks on a leiwen ground separated by narrow flanges, one with a pictogram cast beneath the curved handle surmounted by a bovine mask, all rising from three blade-shaped legs.
7 1⁄4 in. (18.5 cm.) high

Provenance

David Hausman, New York, 1988-89
Sold at Christie’s New York, 20 September 2013, lot 1440

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The pictogram could possibly read tian (heaven). The shape of the present jue represents typical late-Shang form, with a deep U-shaped spout, long tail and round-bottomed body. With the progression of time, the vertical posts became taller, placed further back from the spout along the rim. Compare also to a jue of very similar decoration illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 194-95, no. 18.

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