Lot 2025. A copper-inlaid bronze ritual tripod wine vessel, he, Warring States period, 5th-4th century BC; 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) high, 9 in. (23 cm.) across. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 10,000. Price Realized USD 13,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014. 

The compressed globular body is raised on three slender, waisted supports and is cast around the sides with three raised bands inlaid in copper, the one on the shoulder interrupted by a bird-form spout with backward-curved tail that forms a loop on one side opposite a loop issuing from an inverted taotie mask on the other side. A similar band is at the base of the short neck, which is encircled by a copper-inlaid sawtooth band. The vessel has a mottled brownish patina.

Provenance: Acquired in New York, 1988.

Note: A very similar copper-inlaid bronze he, dated late 5th or early 4th century BC, in the Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated by Jenny So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, p. 411, fig. 84.5.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 20 - 21 March 2014