Page 30 - Sotheby's Important Chinese Art, Sept. 21-22, 2-21, NYC

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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL STEAMER (YAN) See a closely related yan of a very similar design and
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY inscribed with four characters reading Bo zuo lü yan (Bo
made this traveling steamer), excavated in Baoji, Shaanxi
the body composed of a lower section divided into three province in 1958, now in the Baoji Bronze Ware Museum,
bulbous lobes tapering to three columnar feet, each lobe published in The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy
cast with a large bovine mask with thick horns, protruding of Social Sciences, Yin Zhou jinwen jicheng [Compendium of
eyes and fanged mouth, rising to a deep U-form bowl Yin and Zhou bronze inscriptions], Beijing, 2007, no. 00858.
encircled by three taotie masks each centered with a vertical
flange, all below a flared rim surmounted by a pair of arched $ 30,000-50,000
‘rope-twisted’ loop handles, cast to the interior mouth
with a four-character inscription translating to ‘Bo made 西周初 伯作旅甗
this traveling vessel’, the interior set with a bronze plate
separating the vessel sections, the surface with malachite 銘文：
encrustation (2) 伯作旅彝
Height 15⅞ in., 40.3 cm
來源：
PROVENANCE 滙寶閣古美術，香港，1998年
Wui Po Kok Antique Co, Ltd., Hong Kong, 1998.
出版：
LITERATURE 彭銳查及張立東，《The MacLean Collection: Chinese
Richard A. Pegg and Zhang Lidong, The MacLean Collection: Ritual Bronzes》，芝加哥，2010年，圖版16
Chinese Ritual Bronzes, Chicago, 2010, pl. 16.

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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL province and published in Chen Peifen, Xia Shang Zhou
AND COVER (YOU) qingtongqi yanjiu: Xi Zhou pian, Shang [Study of Bronzes
WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties: Western Zhou,
vol. 1], Shanghai, 2004, no. 267. Related you that also
of oval section, the pear-shaped body rising from a splayed feature tapir-form termini on the handles but other motifs
foot, the lower body unadorned and the shoulder cast with in the decorative frieze at the shoulder, and are generally
a raised fillet below a register of elephantine creatures attributed to the second half of the early Western Zhou /
confronting a high-relief bovine mask at the center of each middle Western Zhou period, include: one also from the
broad side, the narrow sides of the shoulder each set with a Sackler Collection and now in the National Museum of Asian
loop connecting a swing handle with tapir-form finials at the Art (acc. no. S1987.292a-b) with long-trunked dragons in
ends, the foot and the sloping cover each cast with a band of the frieze, published in Rawson, op cit., pl. 73; one in the
continuous scroll and the latter rising to a flaring oval finial, British Museum, London (acc. no. 1947,0712.329) with birds
the olive-green patina mottled with malachite, azurite, and in the frieze, published in Rawson, op cit., fig. 72.4; another
encrustations (2) with birds in the frieze, now in the Princeton University Art
Height 11¾ in., 29.8 cm Museum, Princeton (acc. no. y1965-6 a-b), illustrated in
Rawson, op. cit., pl. 74; a third with birds sold in our London
PROVENANCE rooms, 7th December 1993, lot 4; one excavated from
Private Collection. Luoyang with no frieze, attributed to the period of King Zhao
Christie’s London, 19th April 1983, lot 57. (r. 977/75–957 BC), and published in Chen, op. cit., pl. 265;
Massachusetts Private Collection. and another with no frieze, known as the ‘Zuo Ce Huan’ you,
Sotheby’s New York, 23rd September 1995, lot 316. sold in these rooms, 17th September 2013, lot 8.
The present you is distinguished by the three-dimensional
tapir heads at the terminals of the handle and the frieze of $ 40,000-60,000
mythical creatures with long elephant-like trunks walking in
single-file around the shoulder of the vessel. These features 西周 青銅龍紋卣
also appear on you attributed to the early Western Zhou
period, including one from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, 來源：
now in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian 私人收藏
Institution, Washington, D.C., published in Jessica Rawson, 倫敦佳士得1983年4月19日，編號57
Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, vol. IIB, Washington, D.C. and Cambridge, 麻省私人收藏
1990, pl. 72; and one excavated at Mapo, Luoyang, Henan 紐約蘇富比1995年9月23日，編號316

26 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 IMPORTANT ARCHAIC BRONZES FROM THE MACLEAN COLLECTION 27