Lot 1508. A rare bronze ritual food vessel, ding, Early Western Zhou Dynasty, 10th-9th century BC; 9 ¼ in. (23.6 cm.) high. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 50,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The body is raised on three slender legs and tapers towards the everted rim and is cast with a band of plain, vertically arranged "quills" reserved on a leiwen ground filled with black matrix. One side of the interior is cast with a five-character inscription reading Bo X zuo bao yi, that may be translated, 'Bo X made this precious vessel'.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 1992.

Note: The decorative band on this rare ding may be a unique variation of quills, the quills enlarged and given prominence against the large scrolls of the leiwen ground heightened with black matrix. The shape of the vessel is similar to a ding from a tomb at Shaanxi Chang'an Puducun, dated Middle Western Zhou, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 269, fig. 14.6.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 25 September 2020, New York