Page 108 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

PROPERTY FROM THE WU MAODING FAMILY COLLECTION

1389

A RARE BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, NV MU YOU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

The vessel of oval section has a pair of loops attached to the rope-twist handle, and is
decorated on each side with a pair of kui dragons confronted on an animal mask, all reserved
on a leiwen ground-band set between two rows of circles. The cover is similarly decorated
beneath a segmented fnial. Both the interior of the vessel and the cover are cast with a six-
character inscription, reading nv mu zuo fu ji yi. The surface has light malachite and cuprite
encrustation.

11º in. (28.8 cm.) high

$80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE

Wu Maoding (b. 1850) Collection, and thence by descent within the family.
In the United States prior to the 1990s.

LITERATURE

Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wencun (Surviving Writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties),
1936, vol. 6, p. 35.
Liu Anguo, ‘Yongbao tongqi xiaoqun tushuochangbian’ (Illustrated Eassy on the Baoji Bronze
Group), Shaanxi wenshi congshu (Shaanxi History and Literature Books Series), 1983, no. 4, p. 21.
Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions), Taipei, 1983, no. 2172.
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yinzhou jinwen jicheng
(Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), Beijing, 1984, no. 10562.
Wang Xiantang (1896-1960), Guoshi jinshizhi gao (Draft of the Institute of National History’s
Records of Bronzes and Stone Stelae), Qingdao, 2004, no. 1525.
Ren Xueli, Baoji Daijiawan diqu chutu Shang Zhou qingtongqi de zhengli yu yanjiu (Compilation
and Research on Shang and Zhou Bronzes Unearthed in Baoji Daijiawan Area) (master’s thesis),
Shaanxi Normal University, Xi An, 2008, p. 103.
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Inscriptions and
Images of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 9, p. 27, no. 4254.

(inscriptions)

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