Lot 96. A rare archaic bronze ritual ewer and cover (he), Late Western Zhou Dynasty, 9th-8th century BC. Diameter 11 in., 27.9 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 116,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

of compressed globular form, supported by three sturdy conical legs, the body cast with a frieze of an undulating wave pattern surmounting rows of softly rounded ribs, a small loop handle emerging from a bovine mask at the side coaxial with a cylindrical spout, the fitted, domed cover linked to the body by small loop handles similarly decorated and with a hollow circular knop, a single pictogram on the inside of the cover and the interior base of the vessel which is most likely an unidentified clan sign, the mottled olive-green patina with malachite encrustation (2).

Property from The Masaki Museum of Art.

Provenance: Japanese Collection, acquired before the 1960s.

Note: Jessica Rawson refers to the present form with its ribbing and hollow tripod feet as a Ying. The classification is derived from inscriptions on similar pieces where they are described as such.  For further commentary on the form, its origins and context please see Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol IIb, Washington D.C., 1990, pp. 684-690. A very similar ewer, possibly the present example, is illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Shina kodo seikwa, 1961, vol. III, pl. CCLV.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 11 september 2012