Lot 20. A bronze tripod wine vessel (jia), Late Shang-Early Western Zhou, 12th-11th century BC. Height 10 3/4  in., 27.3 cm. Estimate 40,000 - 60,000 USD. Lot sold 161,000 USD. Photo: Sothebys.

the tri-lobed body resting on three columnar legs, simply decorated with double bow-string bands framing each section, further decorated by a single bow-string band around the base of the trumpet-shaped neck interrupted by a loop handle issuing from a bovine head, a three-character inscription cast on the body underneath the loop, the first a pictogram, followed byFu Yi (Father Yi), the dark silvery-green patina with some encrustation. 

Provenance: Collection of Horatio Seymour Rubens prior to 1950.
An old Japanese collection before the 1970s and thence by descent. 

Litterature: Chen Mengjia, In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku (A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), Tokyo, 1977, no. A323.
Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji, Taipei, 1983, no. 4313.
Institute of Archeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science, Yinzhou jinwen jicheng, 1984, no. 9206.
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Shang and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions and Images), Shanghai, 2012, p. 131, no. 11032. 

Notes: The present jia vessel is quite unusual in that the umbrella-shaped posts are absent from its rim. The inscription underneath the loop handle comprises one clan sign and two characters 'father yi'. A very similar jia vessel was sold at Christie's New York, 22nd March 2007, lot. 241. Another similar bronze jia vessel unearthed from Guojiazhuang village, Anyang city, Henan province is illustrated in Yinxu xinchutu qingtongqi (Ritual Bronzes Recently Excavated in Yinxu), Kunming, 2008, p. 266, no. 133.