Page 8 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

Morning SeSSion
Friday 22 March 2019
10.30 aM (LotS 1601-1681)

THE PROPERTY OF A HONG KONG PRIVATE COLLECTOR
1601
A VERY RARE BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, FANGYI
LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The vessel of slightly tapering rectangular shape is raised on a tall foot and is decorated around the neck with pairs
of confronted birds centered on the two longer sides by a shallow, narrow fange and on the other two sides by an
animal-mask handle suspending a loose ring. The foot is decorated with pairs of birds confronted on a small notch.
The cover is similarly decorated below the faceted fnial cast with taotie masks. Both the interior of the vessel and
the cover are cast with a two-character clan sign reading geng ce. The bronze has light green and silvery-grey
patina with areas of malachite encrustation.
11æ in. (30 cm.) high
$30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE
James Monroe McAdams, Mobile, Alabama.
Important Early Chinese Dynastic Bronzes Collected by the Late James Monroe McAdams; Parke-Bernet Galleries,
Inc., 4 November 1948, lot 162.
Millicent Rogers (1902-1953) Collection.
It is very rare to fnd fangyi with handles. A fangyi of very similar form and decoration, but lacking the handles,
in the Saint Louis Art Museum, is illustrated by S. Owyoung in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art
Museum, St. Louis, 1997, pp. 84-86, no. 19, where the author notes “the style of thin ribbons derived from earlier
bronze design, specifcally Loehr Styles II and III, indicate a late Shang or transitional late Shang-early Western
Zhou date for the vessel”.
商晚期/西周早期 庚冊方彜

(another view) (inscription on interior of cover) (inscription on interior of vessel)
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