A BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
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A BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU

WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (CIRCA 1100-771 BC)

Details
A BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND COVER, YOU
Western Zhou dynasty (circa 1100-771 BC)
The pear-shaped body cast with vertical ribs, below a band with two long-tailed birds confronting a small bovine mask on a leiwen whorl-pattern ground repeated around the base, the domed cover with two bands of similar birds divided by a ribbed band, the hinged arched handle cast with dissolved scrolling dragons between the two animal-head terminals, the interior of the cover and base with an elaborate pictogram, thick malachite encrustations, small body restoration
11 1/8 in. (28.2 cm.) high
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Acquired in July 1991.

The inscription on the interior of the cover and base, which is identical, reads
Yi [tian tian] Fu Kui
which may be translated as
"[Made] in the Yi year, [dedicated to the honourable] Fu Kui"
Fu Kui was the posthumous title of the Shang King's father.


Compare the Gang Jie you published in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge/MA, 1990, Fig.72.1, which is very closely related to the present lot. Rawson, op. cit., p. 517, notes that elliptical you of this shape were predominant in the second half of the early Western Zhou; the Gang Jie you from the Brundage Collection is among the earliest examples of the new shape. Its decoration of vertical ribbing and birds refers to the ornament which is typical for Shang-period you with handles across their short axes. This decoration is also found on an early Western Zhou zun, op. cit., fig. 72.2. The vertically ribbed decoration is also found on other Western Zhou vessels, such as the Kang Hou gui illustrated in Jessica Rawson (ed.), The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, pl. 34 and a yu illustrated by Pope et.al. in The Freer Chinese Bronzes, p. 209, pl. 53.

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