Page 27 - SHANG, bronzes of the Shang Dynasty , March 18th , 2021 , Christie's New York.

Fangyi, which were wine containers, appear to have been one of the most prized of
ritual vessels of the Shang dynasty, as thay have been found in fewer and more sumptuous
tombs than more common shapes such as gu, jue and ding. In Ancient Chinese and Ordos
Bronzes, p. 92, J. Rawson and E. Bunker, in their discussion of the fangyi, note that during the
Shang dynasty vessels of this rare type were used in pairs, as seen in the tomb of Fu Hao,
illustrated in Tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu in Anyang, Beijing, 1980, pls. XVIII (2) and XIX (1 and
2). Sets of ritual bronzes found in several other tombs at Anyang include a single fangyi.
The most similar of these fangyi is the one found in 1983 in Tomb M633 at Dasikong, Anyang,
illustrated in Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu, Yinxu, 2008, pp. 108-109 and pp.
92-93, pl. 24, illustrating the set of bronzes, which includes the fangyi, two jue, two gu, two
ding, a gui and a pou. The shape of the Fu Hao and Dasikong fangyi and the decoration and
its placement are similar to that of the present vessel. Another similarly decorated fangyi of
similar form, from the collection of Mrs. Walter Sedgwick, is illustrated by W. Watson, Ancient
Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 18a. See, also, the fangyi illustrated by M. Hearn, Ancient
Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
1987, pp. 28-29. On all of the vessels the motifs are similar, but not identical.

(ink rubbing of vessel)

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