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Lot Essay
The inscription cast inside the cover consists of the character wen, probably a clan sign, followed by fu and a character reading either mu or qi (Lady Mu or Lady Qi). The same inscription is cast in the center of the base of the vessel, with two additional characters, fu yi (Father Yi).
For a similar bronze you unearthed in 1970 from a Shang dynasty tomb at Anyang, Henan province, see Shang and Zhou Bronzes unearth from Henan Province, vol. I, Beijing, 1981, p. 198, no. 249, and the example in the Museum of Eastern Antiquities, Oxford, illustrated by W. Watson in Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 23a. A larger bronze you (28.6 cm. high) dated 11th century BC of similar form and with similar decoration and rope-twist handle is illustrated by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D. C., 1987, p. 388, no. 68, where the author notes, p. 390, “The fine angular spirals that fill the decorated bands differ from leiwen by their arrangement in a regular pattern of triangles and rhombs… It was probably not created de nouveau near the end of the Anyang period but instead seems to have devolved from early Anyang designs of scorpions.” Bagley illustrates, p. 390, a bronze hu and cover in the Museum für Ostasiatiche Kunst, Köln, featuring a geometricized scorpion.
A turtle motif similar to that cast on the base of the present vessel can be seen in the center of a late Shang bronze ritual water basin (pan) from the Avery Brundage Collection, and now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by R. Y. d’Argencé in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, p. 38, pl. XIV:B. Another similar turtle motif can be seen in a rubbing of a late Shang bronze you illustrated by M. Hayashi, In Shū jidai seidōki no kenkyū (A Study of Shang Zhou Bronzes), vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 294, no. 10-109.
For a similar bronze you unearthed in 1970 from a Shang dynasty tomb at Anyang, Henan province, see Shang and Zhou Bronzes unearth from Henan Province, vol. I, Beijing, 1981, p. 198, no. 249, and the example in the Museum of Eastern Antiquities, Oxford, illustrated by W. Watson in Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 23a. A larger bronze you (28.6 cm. high) dated 11th century BC of similar form and with similar decoration and rope-twist handle is illustrated by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D. C., 1987, p. 388, no. 68, where the author notes, p. 390, “The fine angular spirals that fill the decorated bands differ from leiwen by their arrangement in a regular pattern of triangles and rhombs… It was probably not created de nouveau near the end of the Anyang period but instead seems to have devolved from early Anyang designs of scorpions.” Bagley illustrates, p. 390, a bronze hu and cover in the Museum für Ostasiatiche Kunst, Köln, featuring a geometricized scorpion.
A turtle motif similar to that cast on the base of the present vessel can be seen in the center of a late Shang bronze ritual water basin (pan) from the Avery Brundage Collection, and now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by R. Y. d’Argencé in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, p. 38, pl. XIV:B. Another similar turtle motif can be seen in a rubbing of a late Shang bronze you illustrated by M. Hayashi, In Shū jidai seidōki no kenkyū (A Study of Shang Zhou Bronzes), vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 294, no. 10-109.