Lot 504. A large archaic bronze tripod wine vessel, jia, Shang Dynasty, 13th-12th century BC. Overall height 14 3/8 in., 36.5 cm. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. Lot sold 276,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

supported on three tall blade legs, the cylindrical vessel rising to a flared mouth set with two upright posts capped with mushroom finials decorated with sun-whorls, the body crisply cast with two horizontal registers, each finely cast with pairs of low-relief taotie animal masks formed by raised bosses for eyes, reserved on a leiwen ground, the bands interrupted on one side by a single loop handle issuing from the mouth of a bovine, the green patina covered with light malachite encrustation.

Note: The present jia is an outstanding example of vessels rendered in Loehr Style III taotie design. This style is characterized by decoration of low and dense relief with slightly protruding bosses all symmetrically arranged to emphasize the zoomorphic nature of the design. Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, p. 165, notes that jia of this form and decoration appeared during the Anyang period and a jia with similar decoration was found in Fu Hao’s tomb which is illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1981, no. 4, pl. 14:2. Fu Hao was a consort of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty. See also a jia of closely related shape and decoration, except lacking the bovine mask on the handle, in the Saint Louis Art Museum, illustrated in Steven D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, pl. 2; and another sold in our London rooms, 28th May 1968, lot 39, and now in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, published in Bagley, op. cit., pl. 7.      

Compare also a related jia with plain handles in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pl. 9; and one in the Shanxi Provincial Museum published in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 4, Beijing, 1998, pl. 57. Another jia of this type, from the estate of William H. Wolff, was sold in these rooms, 29th November 1993, lot 176; and one was included in the exhibition Treasures of Ancient China, Gisele Croes, Paris, 2002, p. 18.

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.