Page 86 - Sotheby's Important Chinese Art, Sept. 21-22, 2-21, NYC

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PROPERTY OF A LADY 商末 青銅饕餮紋羊首瓿
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL (POU) 來源：
LATE SHANG DYNASTY 日本私人收藏
the compressed globular form rising from a tall splayed foot 上拍於紐約蘇富比2012年9月11至12日，編號156
to a short tapering neck surmounted by a wide flaring mouth,
the central band crisply cast with three taotie patterns each
centered by a narrow flange in low relief, below a band of
confronting kuilong divided by three ram masks cast in relief,
the base further encircled by a band of kuilong, all against a
leiwen ground
Diameter 13 in., 33.1 cm
PROVENANCE
Japanese Private Collection.
Offered at Sotheby’s New York, 11th-12th September 2012,
lot 156.
Distinguished by its large size and dignified form, the present
pou is a magnificent example of bronze vessels created in
the second half of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC).
Inspired by ceramic prototypes from the Neolithic era,
vessels of this type appeared in the Shang bronze casting
repertory around the end of the Erligang phase (c. 1500-
1300 BC). They were used as food containers for ritual
purposes, before disappearing by the beginning of the
Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046-771BC).
Vessels of similar form and design are well represented
in public and private collections around the world. See
a few closely related examples preserved in museums:
one in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington D.C. (acc. no. S1987.61), formerly
in the collection of Arthur M. Sackler, illustrated in Robert
W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, vol. 1, Washington and Cambridge,1987, cat. no.
57, where the author also illustrates a related pou excavated
in Shaanxi province, ibid., fig. 57.1; another in the Musée
Cernuschi, Paris (acc. no. M.C. 8760), ibid., fig. 57.3; and
one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc. no. 08.455).
For examples sold at auction, see a pou formerly in the Tsui
Museum of Art, Hong Kong, sold at Christie’s New York,
24th March 2011, lot 1239; and one formerly in the Sano Art
Museum, Mishima City, Japan, sold in these rooms, 14th
September 2011, lot 265.
⊖ $ 100,000-150,000

82 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 83