Beschreibung:

A fine Chinese bronze ritual wine vessel and cover, Ju You, Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th century BC, the broad pear-shaped body is raised on a splayed foot and the shoulder and cover with lozenge leiwen bordered by circles and centred on each side with an animal-mask, the twisted-rope, swing handle is joined at the shoulder by two simple loops and the domed cover is surmounted by an ovoid finial, the exterior and interior surfaces are covered with a mottled encrustation of bright malachite and azurite, and the interior base and inner cover are both cast with the clan mark, approximately 31cm high x approximately 23cm wide x approximately 16cm deep Provenance: Sotheby's, London, November 18th, 1998, lot 873 where purchased by the current owner and recently removed form a country house in West Berkshire The clan mark, reading '丙' [bing], was associated with the Bing clan residing in todays Shanxi Province. A bronze jue vessel, late Shang dynasty, with similar clan symbol, bing, was excavated in 1953, Anyang, Henan Province, tomb no.304, and is now in the National Museum of China, Beijing; see Zhongguo qing tong qitu ji, Beijing, 2005, p.125. Further examples can be found in other important museum collections; see R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, pp.194-195; in the collection of the British Museum, see W. Watson Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1977, pl.10b; and in the Shanghai Museum, see Shanghai Museum: Ancient Chinese Bronze Gallery, Shanghai, p.9. 晚商 青铜雷纹纹提梁"丙"卣 「丙」金文铸款 拍品来源：西伯克郡私人收藏，现藏家于1998年11月18日购自伦敦苏富比 Condition Report: the exterior and interior surfaces are covered with a mottled encrustation of bright malachite and azurite old corrosion consistent with date crack to foot 4.5cm long and various knocks and chips to foot rim cover edges with casting flaw and old knocks and chips Condition Report Disclaimer