Page 28 - Fine Chinese Art Christies London May 2018

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
*42
A SMALL BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, ZHI 西周早期 青銅觶
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (11TH-10TH CENTURY BC)
The vessel is cast with a pear-shaped body rising to a faring mouth and
supported on a tall splayed foot. There is an inscription cast on the interior 來源:
of the foot, consisting of a single graph. The patina is of a dark greyish-green
tone, with some areas of malachite encrustation. 於1969年4月11日購自日本東京古董商Seikodo
5º in. (13 cm.) high
重要歐洲私人珍藏，於1982年6月前所購
£2,000-4,000 $2,900-5,600
€2,300-4,600

PROVENANCE
With Seikodo, Tokyo, Japan, 11 April 1969.
From an important private European collection, acquired prior to June 1982.

The interior of the foot is cast with a single graph, ju, ‘to raise’, which may
refer to the act of lifting the vessel in a toast, or may refer to the vessel itself.
Compare with a bronze ritual wine vessel of similar proportions, but with
decoration on the shoulder and base sold at Christie’s New York, 19-
20 September 2013, lot 1479. See also two examples of both plain and
decorated zhi illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from
the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Massachusetts, 1990, vol. IIB, pp.630-633,
nos.101 and 102, the former with similar elegant proportions to those in this
(inscription)
lot. Rawson explains that plain and decorated zhi seem to have co-existed
from as early as the Shang period.

26 Other fees apply in addition to the hammer price – see Section D of our Conditions of Sale at the back of this Catalogue