EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The pear-shaped vessel is cast on the neck and the domed cover with a narrow band of kui dragons confronted on narrow flanges, and raised on a splayed foot encircled by a band of four 'eyes' centering diagonally-arranged scrolls. The arc-shaped handle is decorated with dense lozenge patterns and terminates on each end with an animal-head with bottle horns. The interior of the vessel and the interior of the cover are cast with matching four-character inscriptions reading ya mao fu yi (Ya X. Father Yi).
14 ¼ in. (36.5 cm.) high, zitan stand, Japanese double wood box inscribed by Hata Zoroku I (1823-1890) or Hata Zoroku IV (1898 -1984)

Provenance

In Japan prior to 1939.
Mineo Hata Collection, Kobe, Japan.

Literature

Osaka Municipal Museum, Grand Exhibition of Chinese Art, Osaka, 1939, cat. no. 18.
Minao Hayashi, In Shu Jidai Seidoki no Kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou bronzes), Tokyo, 1986, vol. 1, p. 263, no. 66.

Exhibited

Osaka, Osaka Municipal Museum, Grand Exhibition of Chinese Art, 22 April-14 May 1939.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

A bronze you of similar size, shape, and decoration, but lacking the animal-head terminals, is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts, vol. IIB, pp. 482-83, no. 65. Also illustrated, pp. 478-79, no. 64, is another bronze you of similar shape and size, but with narrow bands of dragons rather than taotie, which was subsequently sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2013.

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