Page 14 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION

1006
A BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, PENG ZHOU DING

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The body is raised on three columnar legs and is fat-cast around the sides with a band of cicada-flled
triangles pendent from a narrow band below a band of taotie masks alternating with raised roundels
decorated with whorl motifs, all with black infll that contrasts with the milky-green patina below the pair
of bail handles that rise from the rim. A two-character inscription of a man carrying strings of cowrie shells
while standing on a boat, reading peng zhou, is cast on an interior wall.
7¿ in. (18 cm.) high

$80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE

C. T. Loo & Co., New York, by 1941.
Frank Caro (successor to C. T. Loo), New York.
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections, and thence by descent within the family.

LITERATURE

C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1941, no. 21.
B. Karlgren, ‘Some New Bronzes in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities’, B.M.F.E.A., No. 24, Stockholm,
1952, pp. 11-25, pl. 21, fg. 43 (detail).
Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes
in American Collections), 2 vols., Tokyo, 1977, A15 (image), R170 (inscription).
Barnard and Cheung, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European,
American and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, no. 1267 (inscription only).
U. Lienert, Typology of the Ting in the Shang Dynasty. A Tentative Chronology of the Yin-Hsu Period, Köln, 2
vols., 1979, illus. 113.
Zhou Fagao, Sandai jijin wencun bu (Supplements to the Surviving Writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou
Dynasties), Taipei, 1980, no. 170 (inscription only).
G. Kuyayama, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, A Symposium, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
1983, pp. 134-5, fgs. 17-19.
Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji, (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions), Taipei, 1983, no. 138 (inscription only).
Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 1 (plates), Tokyo,
1984, ding no. 58.
Yinzhou jinwen jicheng (Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), The Institute of Archaeology,
Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing, 1984, no. 1459 (inscription only).
R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation,
Washington, D.C.1987, pp. 458-9, no. 83.
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng, (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images
of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 2, no. 689.

The two-character inscription cast inside this ding can be found on other bronzes which are listed by R.
W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D. C., 1987, p. 459,
no. 83.
商晚期 倗舟鼎

(inscription)

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