A rare archaic ritual bronze wine vessel and cover, you. Western Zhou Dynasty

The compressed pear-shaped body supported on a ribbed splayed foot, surmounted by a tapering cover with a rectangular finial and flanked by a pair of upright handles decorated with cicadas, the grooved overhandle cast with bovine terminals, the neck and cover each cast with a border comprising a mythical-beast head flanked by phoenix reserved on a leiwen ground, box. 28.5cm (11¼in) high. (3). Sold for £26,400

Provenance: An American private collection, Florida
J. Abraham Cohen Collection, New York

Compare a related inscribed you, dated to the Middle Western Zhou period, illustrated by J.Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol.IIB, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, p.521, Catalogue no.73. For another related example from the Palace Museum, dated to the Western Zhou, see Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1999, pl.171.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, 14 May 2009. New Bond Street www.bonhams.com