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AN IMPRESSIVE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
- SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

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AN IMPRESSIVE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $80,000 - $120,000

Sale Information

Sale 2297
Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections
26 March 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza





Lot Description

AN IMPRESSIVE BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL, DING
SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The deep U-shaped body flat-cast around the sides with a band of three large taotie masks with rounded eyes reserved on a leiwen ground, each mask centered on a notched flange and separated by further flanges positioned above each columnar leg, with black inlay, with a pair of bail handles rising from the rim, with pale milky-green patina and encrustation, especially on the interior which is cast with a clan sign
7¾ in. (19.7 cm.) high

Lot Condition Report
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Pre-Lot Text

PROPERTY FROM THE PING Y. TAI FOUNDATION

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 26 June 1973, lot 37.

Lot Notes

The clan sign cast on the interior, zi (son), has been identified by some scholars with the clan name of the Shang royal house.

This well-cast, well-proportioned ding is related in form, style of flat-cast decoration, and traces of black inlay, to two ding in the Shanghai Museum, one of which is illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - Shang, vol. 2, no. 2, Beijing, 1997, no. 29. The other Shanghai example was included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1 February-3 April 1983, no. 5. Another very similar ding, which also appears to bear traces of black inlay, is illustrated by J. Pope et. al., The Freer Chinese Bronzes, vol. 1, Washington, 1967, no. 28 (60.18). The columnar legs of these three comparable ding, are all decorated with pendent blades below diagonal scroll bands, unlike the legs of the present vessel, which are undecorated.

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