Lot 360. A rare large bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, bo hu, Middle Western Zhou dynasty, 10th-9th century BC;19½ in. (49.5 cm.) high. Estimate: $100,000 - $150,000. Price Realized: $206,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2008.

The faceted pear-shaped body raised on a pedestal foot encircled by an undulating band, the sides molded in quadrants with strapwork cast in high relief at the interstices with diamond-shaped bosses, the neck cast with addorsed, long-tailed birds with backward-turned heads and long trailing crests on two sides between a pair of taotie-mask lug handles on the narrow sides, the cover with deep collar and cast with a band of similar birds below the crown, with mottled green patina and some encrustation. 

Provenance: Old Parisian private collection formed in the 1920s.

Note: A very similar bo hu and cover is illustrated by Hayashi Minao, Inshu jidai seidoki monyo no kenkyu, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1984, p. 46 (center). See, also, the similar bo hu, but lacking its cover, illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 608-9, no. 95. The Sackler bo hu bears a dedicatory inscription within the neck which Bagley translates as 'Zhong Bo made this hu as a bridal gift for Xin Ji Luan. May sons and grandsons use it and treasure it for ten thousand years.'

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.