Page 192 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

(rubbing of inscriptions)

The inscription, mu ning ri xin, can be translated as “(made for) mother Ri Xin from the Ning clan”. The
character ri means ‘day’, which refers to the ten tiangan (Celestial Stems) naming system in the Shang
dynasty. The Shang people assigned one of the ten Celestial Stems that corresponds to one day in a
ten-day week to their deceased ancestors. In the present case, the celestial stem Xin was assigned to the
female ancestor from the Ning clan for whom this ritual vessel was commissioned.
An almost identical jiao vessel bearing the same inscription is in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo,
illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 36. Another pair of Mu
Ning Ri Xin jiao was sold at Sotheby’s London, 10 June 1986, lot 50, one of which was sold again at
Christie’s New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1011. This same inscription can also be found on six other
bronzes in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, including a gui, a gu, a you, a fangyi, a fangzun and a zun,
illustrated ibid., nos. 17, 58, 67, 76, 43, and 44, respectively; as well as a fangding (lot 909), a zun (lot 910),
and a gui (lot 911) in the current sale. Taking into account the two gu vessels exhibited and illustrated in,
Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 116, no. 29 (part), together with the fve vessels
in the current sale, there appear to be sixteen ritual bronzes known belonging to mother Ri Xin from the
Ning clan.

The sumptuousness of the Mu Ning Ri Xin bronzes group, featuring rare and prized vessel types such
as fangyi, fangzun, and jiao, may indicate a high status of the owner. A set of ten jiao, of very similar
form and decoration, bearing Ya Zhi clan signs, was found in Guojiazhuang M160 at Anyang City, and
is illustrated in Yue Hongbin, ed., Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Kunming, 2008, no. 119.
Compare, also, a similar jiao, formerly in the Qing Imperial Collection and now in the Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 27 - Bronze Ritual
Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 107, no. 68. Based on the overall style of the Mu
Ning Ri Xin group, the present jiao can be dated to the very end of the Yinxu period.

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