Lot 2977
2977
AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
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AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU

WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1100-771 B.C.)

Details
AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1100-771 B.C.)
The pear-shaped body is elegantly cast with a band of straps and diamond-shaped rivet below a band of confronting archaic birds on a scroll ground, facing a raised mythical beast head, framed by an arched handle cast with stylised linear design terminating in two raised animal heads. The domed cover is decorated with a further band of confronting birds below an oval finial. The interior is cast with a six-character inscription.
13 7⁄8 in. (35.3 cm.) high overall
Provenance
A distinguished private European collection amassed before 1958
Sold at Christie’s London, 13 May 2014, lot 411

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Lot Essay

The present you can be compared to a very similarly shaped you dated to the early Western Zhou period, also decorated with the ‘stripes and rivets’ design and a domed cover with animal head-finials, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1983, p. 90-91, pl. 27. A detailed discussion of this style of decoration is provided by René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé in Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, p. 100. Another you vessel of similar shape, design and dating is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, pp. 448-49, no. 67.

The present lot is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, am Main, dated 14 September, 1958.

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