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Lot Essay
The yi is a ritual water vessel traditionally paired with a pan basin and used in ceremonial handwashing rites. During the ritual, water was poured from the yi over the hands and collected in the accompanying pan. The vessel form appears to have developed in the late Western Zhou period, adapted from the shape of the gong and the function of the he, and it remained in use through the Eastern Zhou period.
Bronze yi vessels typically feature simple decoration, often limited to a single narrow band of decoration and horizontally ribbed bodies. See, for example, the yi sold at Christie’s New York, 23 March 2012, lot 1511. In contrast, the present yi is distinguished by its elegant silhouette, generous, broad proportions and boldly cast relief decoration of two raised decorative bands encircling the vessel, each with interlocking stylized dragons. The vessel is further decorated with a handle cast in the form of a sinuous dragon. A closely related yi with similar bands of interlocking dragon decoration in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection is illustrated by Jenny F. So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 336–7, no. 67. Another comparable example was excavated from Tomb G2 at Baoxiangsi, Guangshan County, Henan Province, and is illustrated by Robert L. Thorp in Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China, Seattle, 1988, p. 55, no. 5.
The present yi is exceptionally rare for having a graph cast on either of the back legs, rather than on the interior of vessel. The graph appears to read tian (田), meaning ‘field’ or ‘farm’, though its precise significance remains open for interpretation. It is a graph rarely depicted on early bronzes, but which can be found cast under the handle of a jue recorded by the renowned late Qing-dynasty bronze connoisseur and scholar Liu Tizhi in Xiaojiaojinge jinwen taben (Rubbings of Archaic Bronze Inscriptions at the Xiaojiaojingge Studio), 1935, vol. 6, pp. 8–9.
Bronze yi vessels typically feature simple decoration, often limited to a single narrow band of decoration and horizontally ribbed bodies. See, for example, the yi sold at Christie’s New York, 23 March 2012, lot 1511. In contrast, the present yi is distinguished by its elegant silhouette, generous, broad proportions and boldly cast relief decoration of two raised decorative bands encircling the vessel, each with interlocking stylized dragons. The vessel is further decorated with a handle cast in the form of a sinuous dragon. A closely related yi with similar bands of interlocking dragon decoration in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection is illustrated by Jenny F. So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 336–7, no. 67. Another comparable example was excavated from Tomb G2 at Baoxiangsi, Guangshan County, Henan Province, and is illustrated by Robert L. Thorp in Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China, Seattle, 1988, p. 55, no. 5.
The present yi is exceptionally rare for having a graph cast on either of the back legs, rather than on the interior of vessel. The graph appears to read tian (田), meaning ‘field’ or ‘farm’, though its precise significance remains open for interpretation. It is a graph rarely depicted on early bronzes, but which can be found cast under the handle of a jue recorded by the renowned late Qing-dynasty bronze connoisseur and scholar Liu Tizhi in Xiaojiaojinge jinwen taben (Rubbings of Archaic Bronze Inscriptions at the Xiaojiaojingge Studio), 1935, vol. 6, pp. 8–9.