Page 25 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

ANOTHER PROPERTY

1608
A BRONZE RITUAL WATER VESSEL, PEN
LATE SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH-5TH CENTURY BC
The tapering lower body is fat-cast with a wide band of interlinked scrolls repeated on the sloped shoulder
below the fat, everted rim, the two bands separated by a narrow rope-twist border and the edge of the
shoulder, and interrupted by a pair of dragon-head loop handles. The vessel has a dark brown and pale
milky green patina.
13 in. (33 cm.) wide across handles
$15,000-25,000

PROVENANCE
In the United States prior to 1996.
EXHIBITED
New York, Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd., Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of Chinese Works of Art, 26
March - 2 April 1996.
LITERATURE
Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd., Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of Chinese Works of Art, New York, 1996,
no. 5.
The pen is a type of water vessel. The term pen appears on other vessels of this form, such as the Zeng
Taibao pen illustrated by Rong Geng, Shangzhou yiqi tongkao, (A General Study of Archaic Bronzes in the
Shang and Zhou Dynasties), vol. 2 (plates), no. 880. The pen shape is very similar to the jian. The Eastern
Han Chinese dictionary Shuowen jiezi (Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters) explains that the
jian is a larger version of the pen. Therefore, small vessels like the present one should be identifed as
pen. According to J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, New
York, 1995, p.13, the shouldered jian shape, which probably originated in southern Henan province, was
unknown during the Western Zhou period, but by the later Spring and Autumn period had become more
common. A jian with cover, of Middle Spring and Autumn date, 7th century BC, p. 19, fg. 111, has narrow
rope-twist bands similar to the one on the present vessel and a pair of loop handles with a diferent type
of dragon mask decoration. The body and shoulder are similarly decorated with bands of interlocked
scrolls, but the scrolls are raised and incorporate eyes.
春秋晚期 青銅蟠虺紋盆