A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL, DING

SHANG DYNASTY

Details

A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE TRIPOD VESSEL, DING
Shang Dynasty
The sides cast in flat relief with two bands, the lower and wider register decorated with three taotie masks centered on and divided by notched flanges, which are repeated in the narrower band above dividing it into sections, each decorated with two birds facing in the same direction, the eyes of the taotie masks and the birds in low relief, all reserved on a leiwen ground inlaid with a black substance, with a pair of plain bail handles rising from the inwardly canted rim, the whole raised on three columnar supports, the base of the interior applied with a rectangular plaque cast with a two-character pictograph, with mottled green and gray patina
7.7/8in. (20cm.) high

Lot Essay

Of the ding published that have similar flat-cast decoration arranged in a broad band below a narrow band, only one has similar pairs of birds in the upper band. See Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, no. 86. The taotie mask, however, is different, and there are minimal vertical ridges bisecting the decoration. Bagley goes on to illustrate two further ding of this type, one in the Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, p. 466, fig. 86.1, which has the most similar taotie masks, but still only shallow ridges rather than flanges and one in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, p. 467, fig. 86.2, which does have flanges similar to those on the present example, but different taotie masks. Both of these latter ding also have pairs of dragons in the upper register and all of those cited have decoration on the legs, unlike the plain legs of the present ding

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