Page 162 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

186. Ritual bronze wine vessel jue
Early Western Zhou dynasty, circa 11 - 10 centuries bc.
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西周早期青銅爵
Height: 18.5 cm

A bronze tripod cup used for heating fermented beverages. Inscription:
The deep straight-sided body of the cup has a half-egg- ▪ A two-character inscription, cast into the side of one
shaped bottom. A mushroom-like tenon rises on each tenon, reads: “Father Xin” 《父辛》.
side of the vessel’s rim just above the area where its long
spout begins to emerge from the vessel’s oval body. The Provenance:
cup section of the vessel is supported on three outwardly ▪ Private Japanese Collection, acquired before World
extending triangular legs which taper off at their bottoms War II.
to end in pointed, almost sword-blade-like tips. The top ▪ Christie’s, New York, 14 September, 2012.
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of the semi-circular handle which extends from one of the ▪ Eskenazi Ltd., London, U.K.
vessel’s sides is surmounted by a bovine head in high relief.
The main, extremely unusual decoration cast around the Exhibited:
body, consists of two pairs of confronting long-crested ▪ Christie’s, New York, 14 September, 2012, catalogue
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birds in low relief on a crisply cast leiwen background. no. 1222.
The underside of the vessel’s spout is decorated with a ▪ Trésors de la Chine ancienne, Bronzes Rituels De La
large pair of birds on a leiwen background.
Collection Meiyintang, Musée des arts asiatiques
Guimet, Paris 13 mars - 10 juin 2013, catalogue no. 24.
The vessel has a nice light green patina.
Published:
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▪ Christie’s, New York, 14 September, 2012, catalogue
no. 1222.
▪ Guimet, Musée des arts asiatiques, Trésors de la
Chine ancienne, Bronzes Rituels De La Collection
Meiyintang, Paris 2013, p. 47, no. 24.
Similar examples:
▪ One jue from a pair with a crested birds’ design, now
in the Palace Museum Collection, is illustrated in
Two Hundred Selected Masterpieces from the Palace
Museum, Beijing, Tokyo National Museum Tokyo,
2012, catalogue no. 49; and in Hayashi M., In Shu
Jidai Seidoki no Kenkyu (In Shu Seidoki Soran Ichi),
Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes, Tokyo 1984,
Vol. I - Plates, p. 187 no. 255.
▪ The second jue from the pair is published in Chuka
Jinmin Kyowakoku Kodai Seidokiten (Exhibition of
Archaic Bronzes from the People’s Republic of China)
Tokyo 1976, pl. 39.

Notes:
▪ Crested bird motifs are extremely rare on jue, and
unusual in general on bronze vessels. Such motifs
begin to appear on some gui, ding and you by the
middle of the Western Zhou in conjunction with the
changes in the decoration of ritual bronze vessels that
took place at that time.

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