A BRONZE FOUR-LEGGED RITUAL EWER, HE

EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE FOUR-LEGGED RITUAL EWER, HE
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The body divided into four lobes and raised on four slightly tapering legs, the shoulder cast in fine intaglio with a band comprising four large eyes cast in low relief amidst elongated quills and leiwen cast in intaglio, with friezes of flat taotie masks amidst leiwen cast on the neck and the domed cover which has a small loop on top and another to one side which is attached by a link to another small loop at the top of the C-scroll handle which is surmounted by the head of a ruminant and is set opposite a spout rising diagonally from the shoulder, both the handle and spout with intaglio decoration, with a three-character inscription cast within the cover and beneath the handle, the decoration with black inlay, with green encrustation
7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 14 December 1967, lot 175, where it was noted that it was collected in China prior to 1948.

Literature

J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, 1990, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, pp. 666-71, no. 113.

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Lot Essay

The three-character inscription may be read as a dedication to Shi Fu Yi.

This finely cast he is similar to one excavated in 1986, Tomb no. 1193, Liuli river, Beijing, and illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 2 - Shang, Beijing, 1997, p. 21, no. 21, and to another illustrated by Jung Cheng in Yen Ching Journal of Chinese Studies, no. 17, vol. 2, Beijing, 1941, p. 250 (left).

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