A bronze wine vessel (zun), Middle Western Zhou Dynasty, 10th-9th century BC. Photo: Sothebys.

of ‘S’-shaped profile, the rounded belly rising from a splayed foot with molded foot ring, surmounted by a wide trumpet-shaped mouth, cast with a narrow frieze above a single bow-string band of two pairs of backward-looking kui dragons with hooked crest and ‘S’-shaped bodies, bisected by two raised animal heads, with malachite green and cuprite reddish encrustation, a lengthy later added inscription to the base of interior. Height  7 3/4  in., 19.6 cm. Estimation 40,000 — 60,000 USD 

Provenance: Acquired from Professor Alfred Salmony, 1953. 

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALEX AND ELIZABETH LEWYT 

Notes: This piece was acquired from Alfred Salmony, the renowned art historian in Far Eastern arts who served as curator of the Cologne Museum of the Far East from 1920 to 1933. In 1934, he immigrated to the U.S. and became the Oriental specialist at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. In New York, Dr. Salmony helped C.T. Loo on several catalogues including the ground-breaking Sino-Siberian Art in the Collection of C.T. Loo. This piece is accompanied by an unpublished essay written by Dr. Alfred Salmony, which is available upon request. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York | 17 sept. 2013 - http://www.sothebys.com