Page 126 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

188

AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL (DING) The striking surface decoration has been accentuated
through the deliberate use of carbon, a practice common
LATE SHANG / EARLY WESTERN ZHOU
to Shang bronzes. A related ding, but of slightly smaller
DYNASTY
size and with cicadas cast below the rim, excavated in 1970
the deep U-shaped body supported on three columnar legs, from Xioaning tun, Anyang, Henan province, and now in the
the ß attened everted rim set with two small upright loop collection of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy
handles, a band of kuilong encircling the vessel beneath the of Social Sciences, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo
rim, their bodies comprised of hooked lines and leiwen and qingtongqi quanji, vol. 2, Beijing, 1997, pl. 26; and a larger
shown in ‘split representation’ centered by the face in proÞ le version, and with blades cast onto the legs, in the Avery
with a large raised eye, the remainder of the exterior sides Brundage Collection, is included in Rene-Yvon Lefebvre-
cast with a diagonal grid, each diamond-shaped unit with an d’Argence, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage
individual leiwen border and centered with a conical boss, Collection, Berkeley, 1966, pl. IV (right).
a single pictogram cast to the well, the sage-green patina Ding vessels decorated with this design were more
with patches of malachite, dark gray and reddish-brown commonly cast with circles in place of the raised bosses; see
encrustations one in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm,
Height 8 in., 20.4 cm illustrated in Bernard Kalgren, ‘New Studies on Chinese
Bronzes’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities,
PROVENANCE
no. 9, 1937, pl. XXXII, Þ g. 132; another from the collection of
Sotheby’s London, 11th December 1979, lot 25. Alan and Simone Hartman, published in Christian Deydier,
Sotheby’s London, 15th May 2008, lot 522. Les Bronzes Chinois, Fribourg, 1980, pl. 14, sold in our
London rooms, 3rd December 1963, lot 171, and again in
LITERATURE
these rooms, 19th March 1997, lot 2; and a third also sold
Liu Yu and Lu Yan, ed., Jinchu Yin Zhou jinwen jilu in these rooms, 19th September 2001, lot 8. See also two
[Compilation of recently discovered bronze inscriptions], related vessels excavated in the late Shang tomb of Fu Hao,
Beijing, 2002, pl. 192. a consort of King Wu Ding (r.1324-1265 BC), published in
Wang Tao and Liu Yu, A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pl. XI,
with Inscriptions from Sotheby’s and Christie’s Sales, Þ gs 1 and 2; and another excavated in 1985 from a tomb
Shanghai, 2007, pl. 25. site near Anyang, Henan province, published in Zongguo
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang qingtongqi quanji, op. cit., pl. 23.
jicheng [Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes
from Shang and Zhou Dynasties], vol. 1, Shanghai, 2012, no. $ 200,000-300,000
00334.
⓮㛓ġİġ大␐⇅ġġġġġġ溶
Robustly cast with an attractive design of raised bosses, this
type of distinctive ‘diamond and boss’ decoration appears 所㔯烉
to have been an innovation of the Anyang bronze foundries
and very popular in the late Shang, based on the excavated Ը๕
examples of the period. Most often seen on gui and yu, this
motif is commonly found on round-bodied vessels. For a ΐ㔎喯⭴㭼1979⸜12㚰11㖍炻䶐嘇25
further discussion on the decoration see Robert W. Bagley, ΐ㔎喯⭴㭼2008⸜5㚰15㖍炻䶐嘇522
Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, ̈و
Washington D.C., 1987, pp 504-514.
∱暐⍲䚏ⱑ䶐炻˪役↢㭟␐慹㔯普抬˫炻⊿Ṕ炻
2002⸜炻⚾䇰192
㰒㾌⍲∱暐炻˪㳩㔋㫸伶㭟␐㚱所曺戭☐普抬˫炻
ᶲ㴟炻2007⸜炻⚾䇰25
⏛捖䂥炻˪⓮␐曺戭☐所㔯㙐⚾⁷普ㆸ˫炻⌟1炻
ᶲ㴟炻2012⸜炻䶐嘇00334

124 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART