Lot 906. A bronze ritual water vessel, pan, Middle Western Zhou dynasty, 10th-9th century BC; 14 ¼ in. (39.5 cm.) wide across handles. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 175,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017 

The shallow body is flanked by a pair of upright U-shaped handles and decorated on the exterior with a band of scrolls, above a band of reversed Z-shapes with cusped ends on the pedestal foot. The interior has a later-added graph in the center and inscription to one side. 

Provenance: Frank Caro, New York, 3 June 1965.
Elizabeth A. Sackler, 1994.
The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation. 

Literature: R. Poor, Bronze Ritual Vessels of Ancient China (slide lectures), Intercultural Arts Press, New York, 1968.
Noel Barnard and Cheung Kwong-Yue, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American, and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, no. 1065. 
Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels), vol. 2, Tokyo, 1984, pl. 362, no. 42.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 720-24, no. 122.

Exhibited: Athens, Greece, Museum of Cycladic Art, Grasslands: Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes From the Arthur Sackler Foundation, 25 April-14 September 2002; Poznan, Poland, Poznan Archaeological Museum, 29 January-18 April 2004; Florence, Italy, National Archaeological Museum, 15 May-4 September 2004; Traverse City, Michigan, Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College, 18 January-30 March 2009, and others.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York