Lot 3128. A rare bronze wine vessel, zun, Late Shang-Early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th century BC; 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 700,000. Price realised HKD 740,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2010.

The body, rising to a wide trumpet neck, cast with a raised central bulb within vertical twin-line borders to and a wider central raised band, the interior of foot rim with a seven-character inscription, the patina of grey and olive-green tone with some blue-green encrustation, wood stand, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Certified by Zoroku in 1936
The box inscribed by Kimura Uzan in 1936.

Note: The pictogram, Xizhong zuo bao zunyi may be translated as: 'Xizhong made this precious wine vessel'.

Few plain vessels dating to this period appear to have been published. Compare a zun of similar proportions but with the addition of a handle, also left undecorated with the exception of raised bands around the mid-section and foot illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, gongyi meishu; qing tongqi , Beijing, 1986, vol. 4, p. 177, no. 194.