An important and rare bronze ritual wine vessel, zun. Early Shang Dynasty, Zhengzhou phase, 14-13ème siècle avant JC.

Raised on a spreading pedestal foot encircled by three bow-string bands interrupted by three quatrefoil apertures, the tapering rounded body flat cast with three taotie masks with circular boss eyes and flanked by outward-facing dragons shown in profile, between narrow borders of circles, each taotie mask positioned below a dragon mask cast in crisp relief that extends over the edge of the sloping shoulder to end in a small tab, the masks interrupting a band of further taotie masks, with a pair of bow-string bands at the base of the trumpet-shaped neck, one side of the interior cast with a lengthy inscription
10 in. (25.5 cm.) high, zitan stand, Japanese wood box - Estimate: $500,000-700,000

Provenance: Acquired in Japan prior to 1920.

Notes: The inscription cast on one side of the interior of this vessel begins, "On the X hai day, the king was at Jianxian," where he made a present of cowries to Zuoce Ban. Zuoce Ban subsequently "used the cowries to make this precious zun for Father Ji." A clan sign appears at the end of the inscription.

The official Zuoce Ban is mentioned in an inscription cast inside a bronze yan, now in the Chinese National Museum, Beijing. Following his receipt of a royal gift of cowries, Zuoce Ban also had the yan made and dedicated it to Father Ji. For a rubbing of the bronze yan and its inscription, as well as a discussion of references in bronze inscriptions to Jianxian, royal gifts of cowries and Zuoce Ban, see R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, p. 530.

According to Bagley, ibid., p. 265, the zun displaced the older lei shape and was one of the more popular vessel types during the first half of the Anyang period. The various examples vary not only in the proportions of their three sections (body, neck and foot), but also in the decoration.

The wide mouth with everted rim, sharply angled shoulder, and high perforated foot of the present zun are all features found on zun excavated in Zhengzhou, Henan province, once the center of Shang power. A zun with very similar cast decoration, but of larger size (37 cm. high), was excavated in 1982 from the premises of the Xiangyang Muslim Food Factory in Zhengzhou, together with smaller zun of similar shape. See Zhonguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu; qingtongqi - I (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Arts and Crafts; Bronzes (I)), Beijing, 1987, vol. 4, p. 3, no. 8. See, also, Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - Xia Shang, vol. 1, no. 1, Beijing, 1996, p. 106, no. 107, for another similar zun excavated in Zhengzhou in 1961. Other similar zun of approximately the same size include one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated by J. Keith Wilson, 'The Stylus and the Brush: Stylistic Change in Late Anyang and Early Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions', Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, June 2000, p. 358, fig. 3, and the example in the British Museum, illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Bronzes: Art and Ritual, British Museum, 1987, p. 61, no. 3. In her discussion of the British Museum zun, Rawson notes, p. 61, that the "three cross-shaped holes [in the pedestal foot] were probably left by projecting ceramic spurs used to separate the moulds and the foot core during casting. The holes are aligned with the seams of the moulds, which divide major areas of decoration around the belly and bisect small projecting animal heads on the shoulders."

Shouldered zun of this general shape continued to be produced through the late Shang period, with some examples becoming increasingly elaborate, such as the large zun dated to the 12th century BC in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is decorated on the shoulder with animal masks with hooked horns and raised on a tall, flared foot cast with a wide band of taotie masks which are as prominent as those decorating the middle section of the vessel. See R.W. Bagley, 'Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Charlotte C. and John. C. Weber Galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art', Chinese Bronzes: Selected Articles from Orientations 1983-2000, May 1988, p. 33. fig. 3. However, in the second half of the Anyang period, shouldered zun were often replaced by taller, more cylindrical zun whose shape was based on the gu, such as the examples illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, op. cit., pp. 282-311, nos. 46-50.

Christie's. Masterpieces of Chinese Art. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza. www.christies.com