LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

The shape of these well-proportioned jue is particularly elegant. The tall, slightly curved, blade-shaped legs are longer in proportion to the body than usual, thereby creating a sense of lightness. The body is also rather unusual, with a shallow, rounded lower body below the taotie band with pronounced upper and lower edges, which combined with the flanges create a distinct, slightly angular profile. A jue of comparable shape, also decorated with a taotie band interrupted by flanges below a band of triangles, is illustrated by Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. 1, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1987, pp. 184-5, no. 13, which is dated 13th century BC. In the entry for the Sackler jue, the author mentions that comparable vessels in Fu Hao's tomb, two of which are illustrated, p. 182, fig. 12.1, "argues for a date at the end of the first century of the Anyang period." Three other similar jue have been published: one by Christian Deydier, Les Bronzes Chinois, Paris, 1980, p. 220, pl. 33; one by Richard A. Pegg and Lidong Zhang, The MacLean Collection: Chinese Ritual Bronzes, Chicago, 2010, pp. 52-3, no. 8; the other by Jessica Rawson, The Bella and P. P. Chiu Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 50-51, no. 11.