Page 10 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTION
1502
A BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD WINE VESSEL, JIA
MID-SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH CENTURY BC
Raised on three thick, blade-shaped legs, the vessel is flat-cast on the Jia of this type, with the decoration arranged in two registers,
body and the base of the neck with bands of taotie masks formed by appeared shortly before the Anyang period (c. 1300-1030 BC). The
birds with quills, rounded eyes, hooked beaks and scroll-filled bodies main decoration was usually that of taotie masks, either cast in
centered on narrow flanges, the decoration enhanced by a black matrix relief or flat-cast as on the present jia, and on the very similar jia of
in the recessed areas. A plain strap handle is set to one side and the comparable height (35.2 cm.), illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in
posts that rise from the rim have conical caps cast with comma motifs. the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pp. 152-7, no.
9, which is dated early Anyang period (13th century BC). As with
12 in. (30.5 cm.) high
the present jia, the taotie masks on the National Palace example
are formed by birds with quills, hooked beaks and rounded eyes
$70,000-90,000
confronted on a narrow flange. Also illustrated, p. 156, are two jia
excavated in 1968 at Xiao chuan, Anyang prefecture, Henan province,
PROVENANCE:
Acquired in Hong Kong, 1991. the first from Tomb M388, the other from Tomb 331. Both of these
have flat-cast decoration, similar posts and simple strap handles.
Another similar jia, also flat-cast with birds with quills forming
商中期 青銅饕餮紋斝
the taotie masks, in the Röhss Museum, is illustrated by Bernhard
Karlgren in "Some Characteristics of the Yin Art," BMFEA, No. 34,
1962, pl. 31a. See, also, another jia of this type, also with flat-cast
taotie bands, and similar strap handle and posts, sold at Christie's
New York, 19 March 2008, lot 487.

(another view)
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