Page 10 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

801
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The deep bowl is raised on three legs issuing from taotie masks and is cast in relief with
a band of taotie masks below with a pair of inverted U-shaped handles that rise from
the rim. The interior is cast with a two-character inscription, Zu Ding (Ancestor Ding).
9º in. (23.5 cm.) high
$40,000-60,000

PROVENANCE
Lantin and Farhadi, New York, 1958.
A ding of smaller size (21.5 cm. high), also dated to the early Western Zhou
dynasty and with similar taotie masks bisected with knife-like fanges on the legs,
is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur
M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge, 1990, p. 250, no. 9. The Sackler ding
has a deeper body than the present ding, and the legs are taller and thinner. The
taotie masks in the band encircling the body are also more consolidated and have
C-shaped horns on the Sackler ding, while the taotie masks on the current vessel
are dismembered and have pointed, projecting horns. Rawson illustrates, op. cit., pp.
252-3, four additional related early Western Zhou bronze ding from Shaanxi Baoji
Zhuyuangou, two of which have bands of dismembered taotie masks similar to those
seen on the present vessel.
西周早期 祖丁鼎

(inscription)

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