Lot 3103. An Archaic Bronze Wine Vessel and Cover, You, Late Shang Dynasty, 1600-1046 B.C. Or Early Western Zhou Dynasty, 1046-771 B.C. H 28cm. Estimate HKD 5,000,000 - 7,000,000 (USD 638,095 - 893,333). Sold price HKD 9,204,000 (USD 1,174,605). © Poly Auction.
Provenance: A Kyoto Private Collection, Japan, before 1959
Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., Japan.
Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., Japan.
Literature: Seiichi Umehara, Nihon shucho shina kodo seika (Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Japan), vol.1 Osaka, Yamanaka & Co., 1959, no.75
The Essence of the Royal China, 2004, The Osaka Bijutsu Club, pl.15.
Note: Sotheby's London,13 May 2015, Lot 101
The shape and decoration of this lot is widely seen in the early Western Zhou dynasty. Compare with a dragon you of early Western Zhou dynasty excavated in 1980 in Quwo, Shanxi, with similar decorations, see Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji, vol 6 , Beijing, 1997, pl.56; another the bronze you of early Western Zhou dynasty can be found in the Freer and Sackler Gallery, Washington DC., with which the shape and decorations are similar, see Jessia Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol IIB, Washington DC. 1995, p 499; Compare with another you collected by Meiyintang of Switzerland, with which the shape and decorations are similar except for the subject of belt decoration, see Wangtao, Chinese bronzes from the Meiyintang collection, London, 2000, no.29. Another you in the British Museum is similar with this lot, except for the belt decorated with bird shape motif, storage number as 1947.0712.329.
With a waisted neck and a wide cover, extending out two horns from the two side of the cover, which is the decoration style appearing in the late period of early Western Zhou Dynasty, decorated around with a beaded band on which two dragons looking back to each other, beside band there are repeated eyes. Above the beaded band is circled with leiwen, on the top of the cover is a trumpet-shaped handle. The wide pear-shaped body raised on a splayed foot. The decoration on the neck is similar to the cover, only the front and the middle decorated with two beasts’heads for the central axis. Casting ring buckles on both sides of its shoulder linked two handles decorated with two tapirs' heads, the surface of the handles is carved with abstract crepe and filled with leiwen. The splayed foot is carved in two bands of string pattern. No other decoration on the body. The same four-character inscription was cast on the inner top of the cover and bottom, "fuding". “”is the family name, and “fuding” is the ancestor lineage as this you’s memorial. A similar bronze you was sold in Poly Auction Hong Kong on 7 April 2014 for 9,660,000 HKD.
With a waisted neck and a wide cover, extending out two horns from the two side of the cover, which is the decoration style appearing in the late period of early Western Zhou Dynasty, decorated around with a beaded band on which two dragons looking back to each other, beside band there are repeated eyes. Above the beaded band is circled with leiwen, on the top of the cover is a trumpet-shaped handle. The wide pear-shaped body raised on a splayed foot. The decoration on the neck is similar to the cover, only the front and the middle decorated with two beasts’heads for the central axis. Casting ring buckles on both sides of its shoulder linked two handles decorated with two tapirs' heads, the surface of the handles is carved with abstract crepe and filled with leiwen. The splayed foot is carved in two bands of string pattern. No other decoration on the body. The same four-character inscription was cast on the inner top of the cover and bottom, "fuding". “”is the family name, and “fuding” is the ancestor lineage as this you’s memorial. A similar bronze you was sold in Poly Auction Hong Kong on 7 April 2014 for 9,660,000 HKD.
Poly Hong Kong. Lasting Echoes - Archaic Bronzes from the Western and Important Japanese Collectors, 2 october 2018, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong