Page 18 - Christie's Chinese Works of Art March 24 and 25th, 2022 NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF DON B. LICHTY, HONOLULU

714
A RARE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD POURING
VESSEL AND COVER, HE
LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH
CENTURY BC
The pear-shaped body is subtly lobed and cast with a double-
line border above the three legs. The neck is cast with taotie
masks between the top of the handle and the diagonally
upright spout. The domed cover is cast below the finial with
further taotie masks, and has a single link that attaches the
cover to the shoulder of the vessel. The interior of the cover
and vessel are both cast with an inscription. The bronze has an
olive-green patina with areas of malachite encrustation.
12º in. (31.1 cm.) high
$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE:
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 16 September 2002.
The inscription cast below the handle and on the inside of
the cover reads ya tian X (possibly zi).
The tripod he form is based on Neolithic pottery prototypes,
seen as early as the Erlitou culture (19th-17th century BC)
and was made in bronze by the Erligang culture (16th-14th
century BC). A Shang-dynasty Anyang-period version of the
he form, with a tall egg-shaped body and small cover, from
the tomb of Fu Hao, is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western
Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,
vol. IIB, Cambridge, 1990, p. 664, fig. 112.1. The present
vessel is more representative of the late Shang-early Western
Zhou period, with its smoothly divided tri-lobed body and
wider circular cover attached with a single large link, and
the spout rising diagonally from the shoulder opposite the
C-shaped handle. The he evolved to a more squat form with
shorter legs, more pronounced lobes and a wider, flared neck
during the early to middle Western Zhou period.
A he of similar proportions, also with zigzag bow-strings
defining the lobes and dated to the late Shang or early
Western Zhou period, but decorated with a simple band of kui
dragons encircling the shoulder and cover, in the Arthur M.
Sackler Collection, is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou
Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Vol. IIB,
Cambridge, 1990, p. 662-63, no. 112, as are two other similar
he decorated with different bands around the shoulder and
cover, fig. 112.4 (in the British Museum, London[1953.5-11.1])
and fig. 112.5 (from Gansu, Lingtai Baicaopo).

檀香山DON B. LICHTY舊藏
晚商/西周早期 公元前十一世紀 青銅饕餮紋盉
銘文: 亞天□（或為自）

來源:
藍理捷, 紐約, 2002年9月16日

16 17
(inscription in cover)