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PROPERTY FROM THE ARTHUR M. SACKLER FOUNDATION

904
A RARE LARGE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YU

EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The bowl-shaped vessel is fanked by a pair of projecting, inverted U-shaped handles. The exterior is
decorated with a narrow band of whorls alternating with stylized dragons, and the foot is cast with a
band of three taotie masks. The bottom of the interior is cast with a single clan mark, Ge. The surface
has a thin layer of malachite and cuprite encrustation, and the base is further covered with bright blue
azurite encrustation.
15º in. (37.7 cm.) wide across handles
$80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s London, 16 May 1967, lot 38.
Arthur M. Sackler Collections.
Else Sackler, 1997.
The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation.

EXHIBITED

On loan: Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Fitchburg Art Museum, September 2005-2015.

LITERATURE

Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 2, Tokyo, 1984,
pl. 139, xiao xing yu no. 22.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M.
Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 454-59, no. 59.
The single clan mark cast on the interior of the present vessel is in the shape of a ge dagger-axe. The Ge
clan is one of the oldest and most extensive clans in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Some of the earliest
bronze vessels bearing the Ge clan mark were found in Wuguan Village, Anyang City, and are dated
to the early second phase of the Anyang period, circa early 13th century BC. The patron of the present
yu vessel was likely from one of the branches of the Ge clan that lived in the Zhou land (in modern-day
Shaanxi) and managed to maintain their power and wealth under the Zhou rule.
西周早期 青銅戈盂

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