Lot 179. A rare archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (you), late Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC). Height 13 1/8  in., 33.3 cm. Estimate: 80,000 — 120,000 USD. Lot sold 100,000 USD. © Sotheby's

the elongated pear-shaped body raised on a tall hollow foot cast with a leiwen band, the neck of oval section, decorated with a pair of taotie masks on leiwen ground, each mask divided by a narrow flange in the center, the tall swing handle decorated with a diamond pattern terminating in serpent heads, cast below the handle on each side with an inscription reading wei ('surround'), the surface with areas of malachite encrustation.

Provenance: Acquired in New York, 6th April 1967.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Note: The present you is notable for its fine casting which creates an elegant silhouette. The exquisite workmanship is further revealed by the intricately cast design of the handle ending in snake-like heads, which deliberately draws attention to the elegant curves of the slender vessel. The minimalist surface decoration and graceful form of this piece are typical of the early stage of the bronze development in Anyang during the Shang dynasty (c.1570 - c.1046 BC). Bronze you, which were used as wine containers at ancestral rituals, emerged as one of the major ceremonial receptacles in the late Shang dynasty and remained prominent until the mid-Western Zhou dynasty.  

Compare a closely related you with a cover, excavated in 1950 from a tomb in Wuguancun, Anyang, Henan Province, and now in the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan [The Quintessence of Chinese Cultural Relics], Qingtong Juan [Bronzes], Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 109. See further examples of this form, such as a slightly larger example, cast with a narrower band of leiwen spirals and a taotie mask around the neck, from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and now in The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey, illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1987, pl. 61; one featuring a more elaborately decorated handle, formerly from the collection of Hans-Jürgen von Lowchow, included in the exhibition Frühe Chinesische Bronzen aus der Sammlung Klingenberg, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, 1993, cat. no. 9; and another in the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo, published in Ancient Chinese Arts in The Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pl. 64.

Lidded wine vessel (you), Shang dynasty, 13th century B.C. Bronze with a cast inscription in the foot; h. 31.5 cm., w. 16 cm., diam. 13.5 cm. (12 3/8 x 6 5/16 x 5 5/16 in.). Museum purchase from the C. D. Carter Collection, gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, y1965-5 a-b. © 2018 The Trustees of Princeton University