Lot 151. An archaic bronze ritual vessel and cover (fangyi), Late Shang Dynasty, 13th - 11th century BC. Height 9 1/2 in., 24.2 cm. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. Lot sold 158,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

of well cast slightly tapering rectangular form, the decoration divided into three sections, the central frieze with a large taotie with protuberant eyes and slit pupils, hooked and curling horns, flanked between narrow registers of confronting long-snouted kui dragons, all against a finely cast leiwen ground vertically separated by narrow, notched flanges, and supported on a hollow foot with arched apertures at the center of each side, the slightly convex roof-shaped cover with its knop of the same shape similarly decorated, the interior of the cover with a single large pictogram Zhu, the reddish-brown surface lightly encrusted with malachite and some scattered azurite, wood stand, Japanese wood box (4).

Provenance: Japanese Collection formed before World War II.