Page 20 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

Fig. 2 Bronze ritual wine vessel, you with ftted Fig. 3 Bronze ritual wine vessel, zun, early Western Zhou
Fig. 1 Bronze ritual wine vessel, you, early Western
Zhou dynasty. Munsey Fund, 1931. The inscription of pedestal, early Western Zhou dynasty, Munsey Fund, 1931. dynasty, Munsey Fund, 1931. The Metropolitan Museum of
the vessel appears below. The Metropolitan Museum The inscription on the vessel appears below. Art Collection.
of Art Collection. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection.

Inscription on fg. 1. Inscription on fg. 2.

The clan sign cast inside the vessel and the cover, each depicting a ding displayed on the altar.” Therefore, a member of the Ding clan was most likely
vessel with two prominent square handles and three legs, represents to own the Duan Fang altar set, and the Ding clan was possibly native to the
an important clan of the late Shang and early Western Zhou dynasties. Zhou land of modern day Baoji city, Shaanxi province.
The same clan sign can be found on a few other bronzes including a zun
vessel and two you vessels in the famous Duan Fang altar set now in The Fangyi appear to have been one of the most prized of ritual vessels, as they
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, published by Chen Zhaorong ed., have been found in fewer and more sumptuous tombs than more common
Baoji daijiawan yu shigushan chutu shangzhou qingtongqi (Bronzes Unearthed shapes such as gu, jue, and ding. In Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes,
from the Daijiawan and Shigushan in Baoji City), Taipei, 2015, pp. 94-95, p. 92, J. Rawson and E. Bunker, in their discussion of the fangyi, note that
no. 4, pp. 122-129, nos. 15 and 16, respectively. (Figs. 1-3) Discovered in during the Shang dynasty rare vessels of this type were used in pairs, as
1901 in Baoji city, Shaanxi province, the Duan Fang altar set comprises a seen in the tomb of Fu Hao, illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in
bronze ritual altar table, jin and twelve bronze ritual wine vessels. According Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls. XVIII (2) and XIX (1 and 2.) They are thought to
to scholars, ibid, p. 95, “eleven bronzes (from the Duan Fang altar set) are have been used to store wine, and the heavy malachite encrustation in the
inscribed with six diferent clan signs and six diferent ancestor names to base of the interior of the Sze Yuan Tang fangyi, sold at Christie’s New York,
whom sacrifces were ofered. The only grouping which shares identical 16 September 2010, lot 822, is most likely the remains of some kind of wine
inscriptions are the zun vessel and two you vessels, which were originally made from grain.

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