Lot 990. A bronze ritual tripod wine vesse, jue, Late Shang dynasty, 12th-11th century BC; 7½ in. (19 cm.) wide. Estimate $40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 52,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014
The deep body is raised on three blade-shaped supports and is flat-cast on the sides with two taoie masks with rounded eyes separated by a notched flange, one mask is centered by a further flange, and the other by the handle, all below a band of triangular blades. A pair of posts with conical caps rises from the rim. There is extensive, heavy encrustation, Japanese persimmon wood box.
Provenance: Yamanaka, Tokyo, 1924.
Hayashibara Family Collection.
Literature: Yamanaka, Kodai Bijitsu Tangkan, 3 November 1924, lot 415
Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 – 19 September 2014, New York, Rockefeller Plaza
