Lot 97. A rare archaic bronze ritual tripod vessel (jia), Late Shang Dynasty, 13th - 11th century BC. Height 12 1/4 in., 31 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Lot sold 170,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the elegant waisted body with flared rim, supported on three hollow legs of tapering triangular section, crisply cast in linear relief with a two bands of three pairs of taotie composed of stylized hooks and angular scrolls with raised eyes, divided by flanges beneath the beveled rim set with two tall square section posts with whorl decorated domed finials, a strap handle to one side set with a well-cast horned animal mask, the patina a gray-green with areas of malachite encrustation, an inscription reads Shang, (the name of the dynasty), Japanese wood box (2).

Property from The Masaki Museum of Art.

Provenance: Japanese Collection, acquired before the 1960s.

Note: The present jia is an outstanding example of vessels rendered in Loehr Style III taotie design. This style is characterized by decoration of low and dense relief with slightly protruding bosses all symmetrically arranged to emphasize the zoomorphic nature of the design. Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, p. 165, notes that jia of this form and decoration appeared during the Anyang period and a jia with similar decoration but different syle of capped finial and handle was found in Fu Hao's tomb which is illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, 1981, no. 4, pl. 14:2. Fu Hao was a consort of King Wu Ding of the Shang dynasty. See also a jia of closely related shape and decoration, except lacking the bovine mask on the handle, in the Saint Louis Art Museum, illustrated in Steven D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, pl. 2; and another sold in our London rooms, 28th May 1968, lot 39, and now in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, published in Bagley, op. cit., pl. 7.

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