Page 170 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

Fig. 6. Bronze pou, late Shang dynasty, c. 1250 BC, 18 3 in. Fig. 7. Fu Hao pou (one of a pair), late Shang dynasty, c. 1250
(47.6 cm.) high. The Henan Provincial Museum Collection. BC, 13 1 in. (34.2 cm.) high. Collection of the Institute of
After Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (The Complete Collection Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. After
of Chinese Bronzes), vol. 3, Beijing, 1997, no. 76. Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (The Complete Collection of
Chinese Bronzes), vol. 3, Beijing, 1997, no. 73.
圖六 商晚期 青銅饕餮紋瓿 河南省博物院藏
圖七 商晚期 婦好瓿（一對之一） 社科院考古所藏

The massive size of the Fujita pou vessel (lot 525) ranks among the largest pou known. There are
three pou vessels from the tomb of Fu Hao, all with covers: a larger one measuring 47.6 cm. high with
no inscription and two smaller examples measuring 33 and 34.2 cm. high with fu hao inscriptions
(illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, colour pl. 5 and pl. 29, respectively).
(Figs. 6 and 7) The shape and decoration of the Fujita pou and the Fu Hao pou are very similar,
though the domed cover of the Fujita pou is more rounded. The Fujita pou can safely be seen as
contemporary with the three pou from the tomb of Fu Hao. The larger size of the Fujita pou may
suggest a higher status for its owner.

During the Yinxu period spacers were widely used in bronze casting to support the clay cores that
are independent from the main clay mold, which in turn also ensures an even thickness of the vessel
walls. Sometimes, clay cores were placed inside the bulky appendages to prevent shrinkage faws. An
example of the use of clay core inside the appendages can be discerned from a small chip on one of
the relief animal heads on the shoulder of the Fujita pou. The material inside the chip is clay core that
was burnt reddish during the pour of the molton bronze and one small hole on top of one animal head
is a core projection which ran from it to the outer parts of the mold assembly to stabilize the clay core.

Fully sculptural animal-form vessels are the rarest specimens of Chinese archaic bronzes. The Fujita
ram-shaped gong (lot 526) is particularly charming for its thoroughly prepossessing ram form. There
were eight gong vessels found in the Fu Hao tomb, one pair of which, Si Mu Xin gong, is in the shape
of stifly posed quadrupeds (illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, p. 59,
color pl. 9). The Si Mu Xin gong are highly stylized and cannot be identifed as a particular species of
animal. The most comparable examples to the Fujita gong are two other gong vessels with somewhat
peculiar heads: one found in Zhangjia village, Yangxian county, Shaanxi province, and the other in
the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C (illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi
quanji [The Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes], Beijing, 1998, vol. 4, no. 91, and by Robert W.
Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1987, no. 74, respectively). (Fig. 8) Bagley suggests that these two examples were probably
meant to represent elephants and they display a typical Southern bronze style.7 These two examples,
as well as the Fujita gong vessel, are probably of contemporaneous date and probably cast in the

7 Robert W. Bagley, ‘A zun from Yang Xian’, Shang Bronzes from Hanzhong, vol. 4, Chengdu, 2011, pp. 570-625.
8 Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987,
pp.416-420.

168 IMPORTANT CHINESE ART FROM THE FUJITA MUSEUM