Page 26 - Christie's Important Chinese Art Nov 3 2020 London
P. 26

mInIature lIudIng vessel wIth scale décor and a cover

                                roBert d. mowry, senIor consultant, chrIstIe’s
                              alan J. dworsky curator of chInese art emerItus,

                                               harvard art museums



























          Its plump circular form, cabriole legs, and animal-  have speculated that these miniatures might have
          head spout combining to suggest a small, rotund     been made for women who came from outside the
          animal, this beguiling vessel belongs to a rare group   main Zhou states and married into the Zhou nobility.
          of bronzes that has only recently commanded
                                                              As vessels of the present type are not self-named in
          scholarly attention: miniature vessels known as
                                                              inscriptions, several different names have been used
          nongqi. Made as early as the Shang dynasty (c. 1600
                                                              in modern times to characterize them. Sometimes
          BC–c. 1050 BC) and continuing through the Zhou
                                                              termed yi (an ovoid, legged, pouring vessel with a
          dynasty (c. 1050 BC–256 BC), a few such miniature
                                                              handle opposite the spout), occasionally labeled xiyi
          vessels bear inscriptions that include the character
                                                              (an animal-shaped yi), at times described as ding
          nong the origin of the name used today to designate
                                                              (a legged cooking vessel), and often termed yiding
          such miniatures. Although it can mean “play” in
                                                              (a combined yi and ding), vessels of this shape now
          modern Chinese, that character’s exact meaning in
                                                              are usually characterized as lauding, or spouted-
          the context of those Bronze-Age inscriptions remains
                                                              ding vessels (the name sometimes modified as xiao
          uncertain; thus, although we have an ancient name
                                                              liuding, meaning a small spouted-ding). Although
          for such miniature vessels, the meaning of and
                                                              miniature vessels occur in a range of shapes and
          reason for their small size remains uncertain. Even
                                                              often mimic the form and decorative motifs of
          so, the placement of such miniatures in an area
                                                              contemporaneous, full-size vessels, the majority of
          of the tomb separate from the conventional ritual
                                                              vessels occur as miniatures, like the present example,
          vessels suggests a special meaning or function, as
                                                              rather than as conventional vessels of standard size.
          does their occasional placement within a separate
          container. As such vessels often contained exotic   Bronze vessels with descending-scale decoration,
          items—which suggests that they might have           called linwen in Chinese, had appeared at least as
          functioned as references to or mementoes of         early as the Western Zhou period (c. 1050 BC–771
          customs and objects belonging to peoples who lived   BC), as evinced by a tall, attenuated hu jar in the
          beyond the range of the Chinese—a few scholars
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