Page 52 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

A related archaic bronze vessel, zun, early Western Zhou dynasty, in Compare a very similar, but larger (29.6cm high) fangding, Shang
the Hirota Hiroshi Collection, Tokyo, cast with an identical inscription dynasty, from the Qing Court Collection in the Collections of the
reading ‘Zhu Fu Ding’, is recorded by the Institute of History and Palace Museum: Bronzes, Beijing, 2007, p.29, no.12. For other
Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, in the Digital Archives of Bronze similar examples from important museum and private collections, see
Images and Inscriptions, no.05639. one dated to the late Anyang period/ early Western Zhou dynasty,
illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum
Fangding are among the scarcest ritual vessels of the Bronze Age, Collection, Taipei, 1998, pp.564-569, no.97; and another illustrated by
and the present piece with its powerful taotie mask comprising kui B.Karlgren, ‘Some Bronzes in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities’,
dragons and robust shape is a rare example. Food vessels of square published in The Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities,
ding form were first produced in pottery as food containers in the Stockholm, 1949, no.21, pp.1-2, pl.1. A further example, from the
Erlitou period and were later made in bronze in the Erligang period. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated by R.L.d’Argence,
In the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, fangding were made for Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection,
use in ancestral worship or other sacrificial ceremonies, and their San Francisco, 1977, pp.74-75, pl.29; and compare also another
ownership appears to have been strictly regulated; Li Xixing in The illustrated by Takayasu Higuchi and Minao Hayashi, ed., Ancient
Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi’an, 1994, p.35, notes that in the Western Zhou Chinese Bronzes in the Sakamoto Collection, Tokyo, 2002, pl.108.
period, the gentry were allowed to acquire three ding, high-ranking
officers five, dukes seven, and the Emperor nine. Compare with a similar but smaller (22.8cm high) fangding, Late
Shang/ early Western Zhou dynasty, which was sold at Bonhams
Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 27.