Page 126 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

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PROPERTY FROM A JAPANESE FAMILY COLLECTION Outstanding for its well-preserved crisp decoration, this liding
is a ne example of the nal stage of bronze development
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD in Anyang, which is characterized by the high-relief motifs
VESSEL (LIDING) against dense ground patterns and attractive rounded forms.
LATE SHANG DYNASTY The most re ned examples, such as the present piece,
feature intaglio designs on the taotie masks over a ground
the deep lobed bowl rising from three tall cylindrical legs to an interspersed with leiwen spirals. Vessels of this form are a
everted rim, set to the top with a pair of upright loop handles, combination of the classic semi-spherical ding and the lobed
li and were made from the later Erligang period through the
nely cast to the exterior with three intricate taotie masks with Shang and Western Zhou dynasty.
protruding eyes and horns divided by anges against a dense
leiwen ground, all below a band of cicada motifs, the surface A liding with a very similar taotie mask, from the collection of
with mottled malachite and azurite encrustation, the interior J. Eguchi, is illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Nihon shūcho Shina
with a pictogram below the rim, Japanese wood box (2) kodō seikwa/ Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes
Height 8 in., 20.2 cm from Collections in Japan, vol. III, Osaka, 1961, pl. CLXXXIII;
one, also decorated on the legs, in the British Museum,
PROVENANCE London, is illustrated in William Watson, Ancient Chinese
Bronzes, London, 1986, pl. 14a; another from the collection
Christie’s London, 5th June 1973, lot 251. of David David-Weill, illustrated in Alexander C. Soper, A
Sotheby’s London, 1st-2nd April 1974, lot 69. Case of Meaningful Magic, Washington D.C., 1990, pl. 7,
Sotheby’s London, 25th March 1975, lot 151. was sold in our Paris rooms, 16th December 2015, lot 21; a
Hirano Kotoken. fourth was published in Bernhard Karlgren, “New Studies on
Chinese Bronzes”, The Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern
EXHIBITED Antiquities, Stockholm, 1937, pl. X, no. 248; and a slightly
smaller example was sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March
Kyoto National Museum, 1970s until 2016 (on loan). 1995, lot 326. Compare also a liding with a large mask, but with
parallel lines on the horns instead of spirals, in the Museum für
$ 40,000-60,000 Ostasiatische Kunst, Köln, illustrated in Christian Deydier, Les
Bronzes Archaïques Chinois/ Archaic Chinese Bronzes, Paris,
1973 6 5 251 1995, vol. 1, p. 257, pl. 3.
1974 4 1 2 69
1975 3 25 The two pictograms on this piece, which appears to depict
151 a bird near a stream, are also found on a liding of similar
proportions, from the collection of Sir Herbert Ingram now in
1970 2016 the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, illustrated on the Museum’s
website, accession n. EA1956.3516.

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