Page 8 - Christie's London May 14, 2019 Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTION
70
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, YOU The current lot was loaned by the vendor's grandparents to the British
LATE SHANG DYNASTY-WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH Museum in 1981 for a year for study purposes. During this time, the museum
CENTURY BC wrote to the owners expressing an interest in purchasing it.
The vessel is fnely cast with a broad pear-shaped body standing on a splayed
foot with a loose over-head arched handle. It is boldly decorated in relief with The you was an important wine vessel and entered the religious repertoire
raised fanges to the sides dividing large taotie masks on the body below a in the frst century of the Anyang period of the late Shang Dynasty. Other
band of confronted kui dragons to the shoulder. The domed cover is decorated examples of the same period as the present lot also display the large masks
with raised fanges separating two taotie masks above a band of kui dragons, on the main decorative band fanked by shaped fanges on either side, all to
and is surmounted by a bud fnial. The inside of the cover and the interior accentuate its face and to draw the viewers' attention to the lower body. This
base of the vessel are cast with an inscription in intaglio reading Ya Tan Fu Yi, arrangement is also seen on a you excavated in Hunan Ningxiang, illustrated
(dedicated to Father Yi of the Ya Tan clan). in Kaogu, 1963.12, pp. 646-7, fgs.1-2, with the upper register replaced by
9⅝ in. (24.5 cm.) high overall
a band of upright lappets. See also a you in the Sackler Collection with
£60,000-80,000 US$79,000-100,000 similar decoration but with handles placed on a diferent axis, illustrated
€70,000-93,000 by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,
Washington D.C., 1987, p. 372, no. 64.
PROVENANCE:
Acquired by the vendor's grandparents in the Middle East in the 1960s, and
thence by descent within the family. The arrangements of the fanges on the cover and sides of this vessel may
be compared with the late Shang dynasty-Western Zhou period you (40
商晚期/西周 青銅亞覃父乙獸面紋卣 cm high) excavated from Wuming Guangxi in January 1974, illustrated in
Wenwu 1978.10, p 93 and later published by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual
來源：英國私人珍藏，於1960年代所購，家傳至今 bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, 1987, fg. 64.6,
p 377.

Compare the present lot with two slightly larger you (30.2 cm. and 32.3 cm.
high) dated to the late Shang-early Western Zhou dynasty with bovine mask
handle terminals: one sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot
151, and the other formerly in the Idemitsu Museum, sold at Christie's Hong
Kong, 29 May 2013, lot 2172.

(inscription inside base) (inscription inside cover)

6 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.