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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL AND 西周末 青銅瓦紋壺
COVER (HU), LATE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY
(2) 來源
Height 17¾ in., 45 cm Kirby C. Boyd 收藏，1910年得於北京
El Cockell 收藏
PROVENANCE Anita Boyd 收藏
Collection of Kirby C. Boyd, acquired in Beijing in 1910. 1975年贈予蒙特利爾美術館，蒙特利爾
Collection of E.I. Cockell. （館藏編號1975.ed.6a-b）
Collection of Anita Boyd.
Gifted to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, in
1975 (accession no. 1975.ed.6a-b)
This monumental vessel with its dramatic crown-shaped
cover is a magnificent example of the archaic yet flamboyant
style of bronze vessels crafted at the end of the Western Zhou
period and which continued to become more elaborate in the
early Eastern Zhou. Although more liberally decorated with
grand geometric designs than its predecessors in the Shang
dynasty, the present hu also retains in its design philosophy
an austere and imposing sense of awe, largely abandoned in
place of sheer opulence by the late Eastern Zhou.
The present hu, which belongs to the later, more decorative
type, is particularly unusual in the way the leiwen design
has been shaped, including slanting and triangular forms of
keyfret. For the development of this form and decoration,
compare a hu from Zhuangbai, Fufeng, Shaanxi province,
from the end of the middle Western Zhou period, illustrated
in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the
Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, 1990, vol. IIA,
figs.135 and 143a (right), with a related square-sectioned hu
with crown-shaped cover excavated at Jingshan, Hubei, from
the early Eastern Zhou, ibid. figs 153 (bottom right) and 179.
A small number of related hu vessels of this type are known:
compare a covered hu with similar triangular leiwen, a crown-
like lid, and horned zoomorphic handles, preserved in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 001309
zhong tong); the famous inscribed late Western Zhou ‘Ceng
Bo Yi’, also in Taipei, cast with a very closely related design
in higher relief, illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Bronze
in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, pl. 36; a closely
related pair of covered hu, slightly larger and squatter in form
with different handles, sold (one lacking its cover) at Christie’s
Hong Kong, 7th July 2003, lot 621; and another closely related
example in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated without a cover
in Shanghai Bowuguan cang qingtongqi [Ancient bronzes in
the Shanghai Museum], Shanghai, 1964, pl. 75.
⊖ $ 50,000-80,000

240 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11744 SOLD BY THE MONTREAL MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS TO BENEFIT FUTURE ACQUISITIONS 241