CHINE, FIN DE LA DYNASTIE SHANG, XIIIÈME-XIIÈME SIÈCLE AV. J.-C.

The clan sign cast inside this vessel depicts a figure standing in a boat and carrying a string of cowrie shells. In earlier scholarship, this emblem was interpreted as zi he bei (“child bearing cowries”). More recent studies, however, generally read it as peng zhou (literally “string of cowrie shells” and “boat”), while some scholars alternatively interpret it as ying zhou (“infant” and “boat”). The same clan sign appears on a ding from the Sackler Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1006; on a rare bronze ritual wine vessel sold from a distinguished European collection at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1503; and on additional bronzes listed by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D.C., 1987, p. 459.