Page 24 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

(inscription on the largest nao)

ANOTHER PROPERTY
1107
A VERY RARE SET OF THREE SMALL BRONZE BELLS, NAO
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The bells of graduated size are of lenticular section and cast on each side in relief with
a taotie mask below a square panel, and the hollow, tapering shank is cast with a single clan sign.
6º in. (15.6 cm.) high (largest), plexi stand
$150,000-250,000

PROVENANCE
Dr. Bruno Canto Collection, Milan, Italy, before 1954.
EXHIBITED
Venice, Mostra D’Arte Cinese (Exhibition of Chinese Art), 1954.
LITERATURE
Mostra D’Arte Cinese (Exhibition of Chinese Art), Venice, 1954, no. 60.
Nao frst appeared in north China in the late Shang period and continued to be made into the early Zhou
dynasty. They were usually made in graduated sets of three, and were probably held upright on stands
so that they could be struck from the exterior. It is rare to fnd an original set of nao of graduated sizes
and matching inscriptions. A set of three nao bells with similar taotie decoration in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei,
1998, pp. 480-83, no. 82. A set of three bells with horned masks from the Western Sector of Yinxu is
illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1979, no. 1, p. 74, fg. 71 and pl. 14 (1). A set of fve bearing Ya Bi clan signs
found in the Fu Hao tomb in Anyang is illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980,
pl. LXII (1), which is the only known set of fve nao.
商晚期 青銅饕餮紋鐃一組三枚

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