Lot 1518
1518
A RARE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YU
PROPERTY FROM A NORTH AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
A RARE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YU

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details
A RARE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
With deep rounded sides flaring very slightly towards the flat everted rim, finely flat-cast with a band of three taotie masks with convex pupils flanked by pairs of addorsed birds with backward-turned heads and curled tails, all reserved on a leiwen ground, raised on a slightly flared foot cast with six 'eyes' that center scroll-filled, tapering diagonals, and are positioned below the taotie masks in the upper band and the vertical mold join lines, with a golden-silver patina and areas of heavy malachite enrustation
9½ in. (24 cm.) diam., stand
Provenance
Acquired in Hong Kong in 2000.

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Lot Essay

Yu were popular during the Anyang phase of the Shang dynasty, but disappeared in the early Western Zhou, to be replaced by the handled gui.

Compare the yu of similar proportions, but of slightly larger size (25 cm. diam.) and with different cast designs below the rim and around the foot, illustrated in Catalogue to the Special Exhibition of Grain Vessels of the Shang and Chou Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1985, pp. 178-9, pl. 5, where it is dated late Shang dynasty.

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