AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, ZUN

LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, ZUN
Late Shang/Early Western Zhou Dynasty
The rounded mid-section and the spreading pedestal foot each flat-cast with two large taotie masks formed by pairs of dragons confronted on a narrow flange, with a small bird standing and facing backward beneath the tail of each dragon, with narrow borders of small circles bordering the middle register and double bowstring bands above and below, the broad trumpet-shaped neck left plain, with a two-character pictograph cast on the base of the interior, with mottled olive-green patina
11in. (27.8cm.) high

Sale room notice

Please note that the correct estimate for this lot is $30,000-40,000

Lot Essay

Compare the zun with identical decoration, and possibly the same zun, from the collection of C.T. Loo illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren, "Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums", B.M.F.E.A., No. 32, Stockholm, 1960, pl. 18b. Another very similar zun found at Shaanxi Yao Xian Ximenwai Dingjiagou dated to the Early Western Zhou, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, p. 546, fig. 78.1. Compare, also, the zun from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, also illustrated by Rawson, op. cit., p. 545, fig. 78, with similar decoration at the mid-section, but lacking the repeated band of decoration encircling the spreading foot

An analysis by Conservation and Technical Services Ltd., University of London, is consistent with the dating of this lot