A Large Archaic Bronze Wine Vessel, Zun

WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

A Large Archaic Bronze Wine Vessel, Zun
Western Zhou Dynasty
With a double bow-string band at the base of the trumpet neck above three bovine-masks projecting from the edge of the shoulder, each above shallow vertical flanges separating pairs of confronted dragons encircling the sides and tall spreading foot, with pale milky-green patina and green and azurite encrustation
12in. (32.4cm.) across

Provenance

By repute from the collection of the Danish Ambassador to China, c. 1940

Lot Essay

According to R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arhtur M. Sackler Collections, 1987, p. 265, the zun displaced the older lei shape and was one of the more popular vessel types during the first half of the Anyang period. The various examples vary not only in proportions of their three sections (body, neck and foot) but also in the decoration. A zun similar to the present example, with the unusual inclusion of dragon decoration on the foot as well as on the body, was excavated near Anyang, Henan province, from a tomb dated to the late Shang and is illustrated in A Comprehensive Study of the Shang and Zhou Bronze Vessel Group, Beijing, 1981, pl. 12, fig.3, with a line drawing p. 19, fig. 4 (5).

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