Page 110 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

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PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC COLLECTION The present you is notable for its Þ ne casting which creates
an elegant silhouette. The exquisite workmanship is further
A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE
revealed by the intricately cast design of the handle ending
VESSEL (YOU)
in snake-like heads, which deliberately draws attention to the
LATE SHANG DYNASTY elegant curves of the slender vessel. The minimalist surface
decoration and graceful form of this piece are typical of the
the elongated pear-shaped body raised on a tall hollow foot
early stage of the bronze development in Anyang during
cast with a leiwen band, the neck of oval section, decorated
the Shang dynasty (c.1570 - c.1046 BC). Bronze you, which
with a pair of taotie masks on leiwen ground, each mask
were used as wine containers at ancestral rituals, emerged
divided by a narrow ß ange in the center, the tall swing handle
as one of the major ceremonial receptacles in the late Shang
decorated with a diamond pattern terminating in serpent
dynasty and remained prominent until the mid-Western
heads, cast below the handle on each side with an inscription
Zhou dynasty.
reading wei (‘surround’), the surface with areas of malachite
encrustation Compare a closely related you with a cover, excavated in
Height 13⅛ in., 33.3 cm 1950 from a tomb in Wuguancun, Anyang, Henan Province,
and now in the National Museum of China, illustrated in
PROVENANCE Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan [The Quintessence of
Acquired in New York, 6th April 1967. Chinese Cultural Relics], Qingtong Juan [Bronzes], Hong
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). Kong, 1994, pl. 109. See further examples of this form, such
as a slightly larger example, cast with a narrower band of
$ 80,000-120,000 leiwen spirals and a taotie mask around the neck, from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collection and now in The Art Museum,
Princeton University, New Jersey, illustrated in Robert W.
Bagley, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, Washington D.C., 1987, pl. 61; one featuring
a more elaborately decorated handle, formerly from the
collection of Hans-Jürgen von Lowchow, included in the
exhibition Frühe Chinesische Bronzen aus der Sammlung
Klingenberg, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne,
1993, cat. no. 9; and another in the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo,
published in Ancient Chinese Arts in The Idemitsu Collection,
Tokyo, 1989, pl. 64.
The pictogram on this vessel, wei, may be translated
as ‘surround’ and is found on three archaic bronze gu,
published in Shang zhou qing tong qi ming wen ji tu xiang
ji cheng. 17. Jiuqi. Gu jiao jue. Shanghai, 2012, pls 08986,
08987 and 08989, the Þ rst from the Museum für Asiatische
Kunst, Berlin, the second sold in our London rooms, 13th
December 1977, lot 210, and the third in the Palace Museum,
Beijing, respectively.
⓮㛓ġġġ⚵⌋
所㔯烉
⚵
Ը๕
岤㕤䲸䲬炻1967⸜4㚰6㖍
⎚吪剔ɀ䑲偗ᶱᶾ炷1978⸜必炸㓞啷

108 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART