Lot 59. An archaic bronze ritual food vessel, Yu, late Shang dynasty, 13th-11th century BC. Height 6 1/4  in., 15.9 cm; Diameter 9 3/4  in., 24.8 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot sold 75,000 USD. © Sotheby's

the deep rounded body with an everted rim all raised on a tall splayed foot, a frieze below the rim decorated with stylized dragon motifs, bi-sectioned by three raised taotie masks, similarly on the foot but without the masks, the body of the vessel decorated with evenly spaced projecting bosses enclosed within a diamond trellis ground of elongated leiwen-pattern, the bronze with a green patina and a few patches of malachite found in and outside the vessel. 

Provenance: Japanese collection formed before the 1980s.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. New York, 19 march 2013