Page 114 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

ANOTHER PROPERTY (detail)

1393

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

Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd., Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of Chinese Works of Art, New
York, 26 March - 2 April 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: jian is a larger version of the pen. Therefore, small vessels like the
present one should be identifed as pen. According to Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from
the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, 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. 1, 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

盆折沿，束頸，平底，肩部有一對獸首耳。頸部及腹部飾蟠虺紋，間以繩紋一周。
盆為水器，其名稱見於青銅器自銘，如容庚《商周彜器通考》圖版880著錄的曾大保盆。盆器形與鑑無異，
《說文解字》曰：“鑑，大盆也”，則此類器物尺寸大者為鑑，小者為盆。蘇芳淑在其1995年出版的《賽
克勒藏東周青銅禮器》中指出，折肩的鑑或為河南南部首創的器形，不見於西周時期，至春秋時期始為流
行。前揭書19頁，圖1載有一件帶蓋的春秋中期鑑，飾交龍紋，閒以與本器上相似的繩紋，可資參照。

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