Lot 149. An Archaic bronze drinking vessel, jue, Shang Dynasty (c.1600-1046 BCE). 8 1/4 in., 21 cm. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD. Lot sold 19,200 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the deep U-shaped body raised on three slender blade legs, crisply cast in low relief with a pair of taotieanimal masks reserved on a leiwen ground and centered by a raised flange on one side and a loop handle on the other side, all set below a band of upright plantain leaves around the flaring rim and channeled spout, the rim further cast with a pair of upright posts with capped finials flanking the spout, the mottled patina with patches of light malachite and cuprite encrustation, with a two-character pictogram below the handle.

Provenance: The Barbara and Helen Myers Collection.
Sotheby's New York, 30th May 1990, lot 15.

Note: The two-character inscription consists of the graph tian (field) and a diamond-shaped graph that can be found on a number of different types of vessels. Compare two jue illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1987, pls. 12 and 13, together with a jue attributed by Bagley to the 12th and 11th Century B.C. pl. 18..