A CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, ZUN

A CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, ZUN
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

The tapering body and spreading foot centred with a bulbous mid-section decorated in relief with taotie masks between pairs of kui-dragons against a leiwen background. The surface with a green patina mottled with reddish areas and showing a few thin malachite encrustations,1.6kg, 22.8cm.

Provenance: from an English private collection, Sussex.

Cf. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art, p.18, pl.4, and Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M Sackler Collections, vol.IIB, p.555, pl.81, for two examples of zun with similar taotie-and-dragon decoration also dated to the Late Shang or early Western Zhou dynasty. For a further group of similar vessels, see also, Sueji Umehara, Nihon Shucho Shina Kodo Seikwa, Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan, vol.II, pls.149, 150 and 151.

商晚期/西周早期 銅饕餮紋尊
來源：英國薩克塞斯郡私人收藏。