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).