A large bronze tripod wine vessel, jia - Shang dynasty, early Anyang period, 13th-12th century BC

Raised on three blade-form supports, the sides flat-cast with two bands of taotie masks, each composed of three masks positioned between the supports and with rounded eyes and slender dividing flange, with a simple strap handle and a pair of rectangular posts with large conical caps cast with comma motifs, with a single pictograph cast in the bottom of the interior, with malachite and some azurite encrustation and a pale milky green patina
14½ in. (36.9 cm.) high, Japanese wood box  - Estimate: $80,000-120,000

Provenance: Acquired before 1960.
Japanese private collection.

Notes: The pictograph cast in the bottom of the interior is a clan sign.

A jia of larger size (45 cm. high) with similar profile and bands of decoration around the sides dated 13th-12th century BC is illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 164-5, no. 7. The author notes that "jia decorated in two registers appeared shortly before the Anyang period" (c. 1300-c. 1030 BC).
Another similar jia (35.2 cm. high) is illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pp. 152-7, no. 9, where on p. 156, two excavated examples are illustrated. Both were excavated in 1968, in Henan province, Anyang prefecture, Xiao chuan, the first from Tomb M388, the second from Tomb 331.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 19 March 2008, 2:30 pm. 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York