Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 3
An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, jue Late Shang Dynasty, 11th century BC
10 November 2016, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, jue
Late Shang Dynasty, 11th century BC
The U-shaped body raised on three tall tapered legs of triangular section and encircled by a decorative band intersected with small globules beneath a narrow key-fret border, one side with a loop handle, the lip typically flaring at one end and with a long curving spout between two upright posts surmounted by whorl-cast conical caps at the other end, Japanese wood box.
17cm (6 6/8in) high (2).
The U-shaped body raised on three tall tapered legs of triangular section and encircled by a decorative band intersected with small globules beneath a narrow key-fret border, one side with a loop handle, the lip typically flaring at one end and with a long curving spout between two upright posts surmounted by whorl-cast conical caps at the other end, Japanese wood box.
17cm (6 6/8in) high (2).
Footnotes
商末（公元前十一世紀） 青銅乳丁紋爵
Provenance: Mayuyama Collection, Tokyo
Kochukyo, Tokyo
來源：東京繭山收藏
日本古董商壺中居
Illustrated and Published: Naito Kenkichi, Nihon shucho shina kodo seika, vol.3, Tokyo, 1961, no.229.
The inscription consists of a graph depicting an inverted arrow head rendered in fine, raised lines.
The highly stylised motif on this jue vessel shows a departure from the classical taotie motif and it is rare to find another jue with the same pattern and design. This pattern intersected with rounded globules can be found on a gui bronze ritual food vessel, late Shang period, illustrated by C.Peifen, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, 1995, p.52, no.25; another gui vessel with the same design of 'compound lozenges and spikes', dated to the Early Zhou dynasty, is illustrated by B.Karlgren, Chinese Bronzes: The Natanael Wessen Collection, Stockholm, 1969, p.44.
Compare with a related archaic bronze jue vessel, late Shang dynasty, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong on 30 May 2012, lot 4130; another related bronze jue vessel, late Shang dynasty, was sold at Sotheby's New York on 18 March 2014, lot 1.
