Note: Achaic bronze cooking vessels of this form, called li, are rare, although they were in use for most of the Bronze Age. Unlike the ding, which has solid legs, or the li ding, where the legs are only slightly hollowed out, the li with its hollow legs, which allow for optimal heat distribution during cooking, continues a pottery tradition of the Neolithic period.

The present example with its distinct bulging form is particularly unusual, although one example of very similar shape and design is recorded, the Gong Ji li from the Avery Brundage collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which is illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, pl. XXVIII right. Rawson, who discusses (op.cit., pp. 325f), the evolution of the 'li decorated with ribbony taotie,' attributes both the present and the Brundage li to the middle Western Zhou period, that is, the period of the reigns of Wu Wang, Gong Wang, Yi Wang and Xiao Wang, from circa 975 to 875 BC. She also illustrates (p. 329, fig. 29.1) another li of related proportions but with a different design and more prominent flanges, the Zhou Sheng li in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum. 

Li of these rounded proportions and with cabriole legs are more commonly found without handles and with an everted rim, a shape more directly copying contemporary ceramics; see, for example, three slightly later tripods of that form in Rawson, op.cit., cat.nos. 28 and 29, and fig. 28.2, and a pottery prototype, fig. 27.3; and another bronze example sold in these rooms, 24th March 1998, lot 521.

The present vessel is also highly important because of its long documentary inscription. Whereas the inscription on the Brundage li, which is much shorter, is said to be "too eroded to permit even a partial translation" (d'Argencé, op.cit., p. 72), that on the present piece is clearly legible and has been much published.

The 65-character inscription is transcribed by Chen, op.cit., p. 26, and can be translated as follows:

"Duke Mu made Yin Ji's clan temple at Yulin. 
In the 6th month, jishengba phase, yimao day,
the Empress Dowager, not forgetting Duke Mu's excellent service to the late King, came to Yin Ji's temple at Yulin.
She encouraged Yin Ji and gave five pieces of jade and four horses. (Yin Ji) bowed her head and praised the Empress Dowager's greatness,
and made this precious food vessel."

This vessel is one of only a few vessels to mention the Empress Dowager.  The same inscription appears also on another tripod vessel in a private collection in Japan, published in Barnard and Cheung, op.cit., p. 165, no. 99. Chen, op.cit., no.  A128, pl. 411, rubbing 400, illustrates a companion li with a 38-character inscription, that was formerly at Tonying and Co. and could possibly be the pair to the li in the Avery Brundage collection.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including Property from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 19-20 march 2007.