Page 192 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

196. Ritual bronze wine vessel lei
Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period, circa 8 - 5 centuries bc.
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東周春秋時期青銅罍
Width: 36.2 cm

A wide, well-rounded, ritual wine vessel lei, with a flat Provenance:
narrow circular bottom, from which the vessel’s lower ▪ Sotheby’s, London, 10 June, 1986.
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body gradually expands outwards until it reaches the ▪ Private English Collection, U.K.
vessel’s wide mid-section, which is topped by a rounded, ▪ Roger Keverne, London, U.K.
sloping shoulder surmounted by a short, narrow neck that
gradually opens outwards at its top to form a rounded, Exhibited:
trumpet-like rim. At the top of the vessel’s shoulder, two ▪ Sotheby’s, London, 10 June, 1986, catalogue no. 43A.
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loop handles are cast in the shape of fabulous beasts with ▪ Winter Exhibition 2012, Roger Keverne, London 2012,
their heads turned backwards towards their raised backs. catalogue no.1.
The vessel is decorated with three registers of interlinked
S-shaped dragons, interspersed with bands of scroll-filled Published:
triangles and scale patterns. ▪ Sotheby’s, London, 10 June, 1986, catalogue no. 43A.
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▪ Keverne R., Winter Exhibition 2012, London 2012,
The vessel has an olive-grey patina with areas of malachite no. 1.
incrustations.
Similar Examples:
▪ A very similar lei in the Collection of the National
Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Ch’en Fangmei,
Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and
Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels, National Palace
Museum, Taipei 1989, pp.186 - 7, plate 62.
▪ A similar lei, excavated from a tomb at Yuhuangmiao,
and now in the Collection of the Beijing Cultural Relics
Institute, is illustrated by Wang Jinlu, Beijing Relics,
Beijing 1990, p.33, no. 54.
▪ Another similar vessel, excavated in 1980 in Huailai
Ganzibao in Hebei province, and now in the Collection
of the Zhangjiakou City Museum, Hebei province is
published in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji, Vol.15 -
Beifang minzu, Beijing 1996, p.131 no. 194.,
▪ A lei with exactly the same decor is published by
Hayashi M., Shunju Sengoku Jidai Seidoki no Kenkyu
(In Shu Seidoki Soran San) Studies of Bronzes from
the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods,
Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes, Tokyo 1989,
Vol. III, p. 124, no. 12.

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