Page 133 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018
P. 133
193
PROPERTY FROM THE JUNKUNC The present vessel has a closely related bronze two bronze he bearing the same inscription,
COLLECTION counterpart of very similar shape and design, which suggests they were made as a set.
excavated in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, attributed A further late Shang dynasty white marble
A RARE WHITE MARBLE VESSEL AND
to the early Spring and Autumn period, bearing dou and a green jade gui, excavated from Fu
COVER (XU)
a longer inscription with the Þ rst two characters Hao’s tomb, Henan province, are illustrated
EARLY SPRING AND AUTUMN (maker’s name) since e# aced, reading XX in National Museum of China, ed., Zhongguo
PERIOD OR LATER wei furen xingxu yongzheng yongxing maisui guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu
yongshang (‘XX made this xu for the wife to be congshu. yuqi juan / Studies of the Collections
of rectangular form with rounded corners raised used for ten thousand years’), formerly in the of the National Museum of China: Jade,
on a tall splayed foot with a bracket-shaped collection of Liu Tizhi and Rong Geng, published Shanghai, 2007, pls 32 and 33.
opening on each side, carved around the sides in Wu Zhenfeng, ed., Shangzhou qingtongqi
with a wide band of formalized angular cloud mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium $ 8,000-12,000
motifs, interrupted by a pair of loop handles of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from
issuing from mythical beast heads, the domed the Shang and Zhou Dynasties], Shanghai, 㗍䥳⇅ㆾ㚜㘂ġġġ䁢䓓Ṣ䞛䚐
cover of conforming shape similarly decorated 2012, vol. 12, no. 05590, where the author 所㔯烉
and surmounted by four upright stepped feet, noted there is an extant bronze ding with the 䁢䓓Ṣ
the interior of the vessel and cover carved in same inscription, also missing the Þ rst two
mirror image with a three-character inscription characters. Ը๕
reading wei fu ren (‘for the wife’), the stone JayġCįġLe# ġĩ1925Į2000Īġ㓞啷
Stone wares made in the form of archaic
speckled with black inclusions (2) ParkeĮBernetġGalleries炻1969⸜5㚰9军10
bronze ritual vessel, such as the present xu and
Width 10½ in., 26.8 cm
cover, are extremely rare, although examples 㖍炻䶐嘇267
PROVENANCE of this type have been excavated, providing 喯㭼ġParkeĮBernet炻1972⸜6㚰1㖍炻
evidence of the existence of stone ritual vessels 䶐嘇20
Collection of Jay C. Le# (1925-2000).
in Bronze Age China. See a jade ding, excavated
Parke-Bernet Galleries, 9th-10th May 1969, NagataniĭġIncį炻剅≈⒍炻1972⸜8㚰1㖍
from a tomb in Luoyang, Henan province, dated
lot 267. ⎚吪剔ɀ䑲偗ᶱᶾ炷1978⸜必炸㓞啷
mid-Spring and Autumn period, inscribed with
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 1st June 1972, lot 20.
Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, 1st August 1972. a three-character inscription to the shoulder
reading gong ci ding (‘bestowed by the duke’),
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).
published in Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., no. 19701.
The same tomb also yielded a bronze ding and 194 No Lot
131