Page 151 - Christie's, NYC Important Chinese Works Of Art Sept. 22-23, 2022

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTION
827
A BRONZE RITUAL RECTANGULAR FOOD VESSEL, FANGDING The inscription on the interior of the vessel reads Reng X Fu zuo jue pang
LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH ding, which may be translated as, ‘Father Reng X made this rectangular ding
CENTURY BC vessel’. Fangding dated from before the Anyang period of the Shang dynasty
The rectangular vessel is raised on four columnar legs below notched flanges to the second half of the early Western Zhou dynasty. One type of fangding
shares design elements that are similar to those found on the present vessel:
at the corners of the body. The body is decorated in high relief on each side a rectangular field surrounded on three sides by rows of bosses below a
with rows of pointed bosses framing a rectangular panel, below a narrow band decorative band, and flanges at the corners to accentuate the body shape.
containing a bifurcated snake, the split, undulant body of which is decorated Sometimes the rectangular field is left plain, as seen here, and sometimes
with diamond markings, reserved on a ground of leiwen and bosses. One side it is filled with a leiwen pattern. The decorative band above is usually birds
of the interior has a seven-character inscription. or dragons of varying types. Other late Shang-early Western Zhou fangding
7Ω in. (19 cm.) high featuring a similar bifurcated or split snake set against a leiwen ground
incorporating small roundels with raised dots above a plain rectangular
$80,000-120,000 field are illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Washington, DC and Cambridge,
PROVENANCE: Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 234-39, no. 6 and figs. 6.5-6.9. A fangding
Christie’s New York, 2 December 1986, lot 318. illustrated by Chen Peifen, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum,
London, 1995, p. 50, no. 23, has leiwen in the rectangular field below a band
紐約顯赫私人珍藏 of pairs of birds confronted on a flange. A fangding from the Doris Duke
Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 150, is
晚商/西周早期 公元前十二至十一世紀 青銅乳釘紋方鼎
very similar to the Shanghai vessel. Another fangding excavated in 1984 at
銘文或作: 艿□父作氒旁鼎 Tengzhou Zhuang, Shandong province, illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi
Quanji - Western Zhou, vol. 6, no. 2, Beijing, 1997, p. 73, no. 75, has a plain
來源: field below a pair of kui dragons confronted on a small flange.
紐約佳士得, 1986年12月2日, 拍品編號 318

(another view) (inscription)

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NYC20719_PGS_0086_0199.indd 148-149