.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The inscription may be read, "Gong Si was rewarded with cowrie shells at X (Si) and then made Father Yi this vessel".
This fangding appears to be one of three vessels with virtually the same inscription, reputed to have been found with other bronze objects in a tomb at Dongshihe-cun, Huixian county, Henan province, between 1946-47. The tomb was for a member of the Gong clan. The other two vessels are a large round ding and a gu, both now in the Royal Ontario Museum. The three pieces are illustrated by William C. White, Bronze Culture of Ancient China, 1956, p. 151, pl. LXXVI (the ding) and p. 152, pl. LXXVII (the gu and its inscription), and the fangding is illustrated in a group of bronzes, p. 157, pl. LXXXII, along with its inscription (fig. A). According to White, this fangding was handled by C.T. Loo. The fangding and the gu seem to be of the same period, while the ding may be slightly later. The find also included pieces of much earlier date.
A similar fangding excavated at Shengjie, Lingshi county, Shanxi province, and now in the Shanxi provincial museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 4 - Shang (4), Beijing, 1998, pl. 21, no. 21. Another, with a lengthy inscription, is illustrated by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 522, fig. 103.1, where the author notes that Si may be the person who made the vessel, rather than a place name.
This fangding appears to be one of three vessels with virtually the same inscription, reputed to have been found with other bronze objects in a tomb at Dongshihe-cun, Huixian county, Henan province, between 1946-47. The tomb was for a member of the Gong clan. The other two vessels are a large round ding and a gu, both now in the Royal Ontario Museum. The three pieces are illustrated by William C. White, Bronze Culture of Ancient China, 1956, p. 151, pl. LXXVI (the ding) and p. 152, pl. LXXVII (the gu and its inscription), and the fangding is illustrated in a group of bronzes, p. 157, pl. LXXXII, along with its inscription (fig. A). According to White, this fangding was handled by C.T. Loo. The fangding and the gu seem to be of the same period, while the ding may be slightly later. The find also included pieces of much earlier date.
A similar fangding excavated at Shengjie, Lingshi county, Shanxi province, and now in the Shanxi provincial museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 4 - Shang (4), Beijing, 1998, pl. 21, no. 21. Another, with a lengthy inscription, is illustrated by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 522, fig. 103.1, where the author notes that Si may be the person who made the vessel, rather than a place name.