Bonhams. The Ollivier Collection of Early Chinese Art, London, 8 Nov 2018
A large and rare archaic bronze vessel, Hu, Late Shang Dynasty (c. 1500-1050 BC)
Lot 33. A large and rare archaic bronze vessel, Hu, Late Shang Dynasty (c. 1500-1050 BC); 41cm (16 1/8in) high. Estimate: £180,000 - 220,000 (€ 200,000 - 250,000). Sold for £ 224,750 (€ 258,176). © Bonhams.
The pear-shaped body of oval section supported on a spreading foot cast with a band displaying large taotie masks, a further band of taotie masks around the waisted neck, with large rounded eyes on each side, and separated by a narrow band, the sides applied with a pair of rams-head lug handles with long curling horns, with mottled light green patina and areas of malachite encrustation.
Provenance: Wui Po Kok Antique Co., Hong Kong, 21 October 2000
Gisèle Croës Arts D'Extreme Orient, Brussels, 2014
Jean-Yves Ollivier Collection.
Published and Illustrated: G.Croës, Ancient Chinese Treasures. The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, 2010, pp.40-41
Note: The present lot was designed to store wine. Its function was recorded in historical texts such as the Shijing (The Classic of Poetry), as well as the Liji (Book of Rites). Originally, this type of vessel would have had a lid which might have been fastened to the body by a string from the lug-handles on the sides.
Bronze hu vessels of this type were popular in the Anyang region during the late Shang period and there are many published examples. For bronze hu of similar shape and decoration found in Zhengzhou in Henan, Qingjian in Shaanxi and Gaocheng in Shandong, all dating from the middle to late Shang dynasty, see Hayashi Minao, Conspectus of Yin and Zhou bronzes, Tokyo, 1984, nos.25, 37 and 38. See also another similar hu, late Shang dynasty, illustrated by Wang Tao, Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 2009, pp.82-83, no.37. Large bronze hu of similar form continued into the early Western Zhou periods, but by then the bodies were more elaborately ornamented, see Ibid., p.82.
Compare with a related bronze hu, late Shang period, and in Anyang style, in a similar shape but with full-body decoration, which was sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 831.