Page 246 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A VERY RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE This lot is accompanied by a certification note written by
VESSEL (ZUN) Zoroku Hata III in 1936. The box is inscribed with a note by
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY Uzan Nagao (1864-1942) in the same year.
This vessel is particularly unusual for its minimalist
well cast with the bulging central section rising from a appearance, lacking surface decoration except for three
splayed foot to a trumpet neck with an everted rim, set raised ribs. Zun of this type are discussed by Jessica
evenly around the body with three raised plain bands, Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M.
inscribed to the interior with an eight-character inscription
reading Xi (possibly) Zhong zuo fu yi bao zun yi, the surface Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1990, p. 67, where
she notes that plain vessels were recovered in the area of
with malachite encrustation, ‘Japanese boxes’ (5) the Xing fief in Yuanshi county, Hebei province, and are
Height 8 in., 20.2 cm
datable to the latter part of the early Western Zhou period.
PROVENANCE Richly decorated vessels were also excavated at this site,
suggesting that the two styles coexisted.
Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st December 2010, lot 3218.
Two zun of this type in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
$ 100,000-150,000 Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., are illustrated
ibid., vol. IIB, pls 85 and 86, the first decorated with two
ram’s heads and illustrated with two further examples, figs
西周初 青銅素帶尊 85.1 and 85.2, the second left plain; and two undecorated
zun are illustrated in Jung Keng, ‘The Bronzes of Shang and
銘文： Zhou’, Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, Monograph
奚（疑似）仲作父乙寶尊彝 Series no. 17, 1941, pls 523 and 543, together with one with a
handle, pl. 532.
來源
香港佳士得2010年12月1日，編號3218

附三世藏六丙子年（1936年）鑑定書
日本盒蓋內書長尾甲同年題識

244 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART