Lot 40. A magnificent and important bronze ritual wine vessel, zun, late Shang- early Western Zhou dynasty (12th-10th century BC); 12 ¼ in. (31.2 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 200,000 - GBP 400,000  Price realised GBP 272,750. © Christie’s Images Limited 2018

The bulbous mid-section and the spreading lower body of the vase are boldly cast withtaotie masks interspersed with thick vertical flanges. Upright blades decorate the wide flaring cylindrical neck, also separated by flanges which protrude beyond the edge of the mouth rim. The interior of the base bears a four-character inscription. The smooth dark green patina is almost black in tone, with some areas of encrustation.  

Provenance: S. Kawai Collection, Kyoto.
Property of the Late Dr. A. F. Philips (1874-1951).
Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1978, lot 21.
From an important private European collection. 

Literature: Sueji Umehara, Nihon Shucho Shina Kodo Seikwa, Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan, Osaka, 1960, vol. II, pl. CXXXV.
Ba Na and Zhang Guangyu, Zhong Ri Ou Mei Ao Niu Suo Jian Suo Ta Suo Mo Jinwen Huibian, 1978, Taipei, vol. 9, no. 1408.
Zhou Fagao, San Dai JiJinwen cun bu, 1980, Taipei, no. 645.
Minao Hayashi, Studies on Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration: A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels, 1986, Tokyo, p. 223, no.20.

Note: The inside of the foot of the vessel bears an inscription consisting of four characters, Wei Fu Fu Xin. A dedication to Fu Xin (Father Xin) is accompanied by two graphs. Above is cast an emblem showing four footprints encircling a rectangular ring, likely equivalent to a simpler character of oracle script, transcribed as wei. This may be read as a clan insignia, and commonly accompanies ancestral dedications, as it does here with Fu Xin, along with another pictograph depicting a quiver of arrows. 

Compare the present vessel to a zun of similar style, dated to the Late Shang period, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Chen Peifen in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum, London, 1995, p. 41. Another example of a zun of this unusual form can be found in the Pillsbury Collection, which is slightly smaller in size but almost identical in form and decoration. (See B. Karlgren, A Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis, 1951, pp. 78-79, no. 26). 

A comparable zun, similar in form but without flanges on the upper part, is illustrated by R. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 310-311. Another example of a vessel with prominent flanges, flared base and bulbous mid-section is the Boge zun of the Baoji City Museum Collection, illustrated by Li Xixing, The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi'an, 1994, p. 170.