Lot 1505. A rare well-cast bronze ritual wine vessel, zun, late Shang dynasty, 11th century BC, 10¼ in. (29 cm.) high. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 300,000. Price realised USD 578,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012 

With plain, broad trumpet-shaped neck, the rounded middle section cast in relief on each side with a large taotie mask with large oblong eyes and flanked by hooked scrolls, the masks divided and separated by flanges repeated on the spreading foot between two pairs of confronted birds with hooked beaks, crests, taloned feet and long curled tails, all reserved on a bold leiwen ground with black inlay, the interior of the foot cast with a yaxing framing an inscription which is obscured by the milky green patina and pale malachite encrustation, box. 

Provenance: Mathias Komor, New York, 1951. 

Note: In terms of shape and design, this imposing vessel belongs to a small group of late Shang zun which features two lower registers of taotieand animal designs in low relief while the neck and flaring mouth are devoid of decoration and flanges except for the double bow-string bands just above the midsection. Another zun of this general type, but cast with taotie masks on the splayed foot rather than pairs of confronted birds such as those seen on the current example, is illustrated by S.D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, p. 70, no. 14. Another related zun is illustrated by J.K. Murray, A Decade of Discovery: Selected Acquisitions, 1970-1980, The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 6, where it is dated to the Shang dynasty, late Anyang period, based on a similar vessel excavated at Cangshan, Xi'an, Shandong province and illustrated in Wenwu, 1965:7, p. 30, fig. 13.