A Bronze Tripod Vessel, Ding, Late Shang Dynasty, 1600-1046 B.C.

Lot 3109. A Bronze Tripod Vessel, Ding, Late Shang Dynasty, 1600-1046 B.C. H 20cm. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000 (USD 153,143 - 229,714). Sold price HKD 1,770,000 (USD 225,886). © Poly Auction.

The body of the bronze ding is in deep U-shape,supported on three columnar legs, the flattened everted rim set with two small upright loop handles, a band of kuilong encircling the vessel beneath the rim, their bodies comprised of hooked lines and leiwen and shown in 'split representation' centered by the face in profile with a large raised eye, the remainder of the exterior sides cast with a diagonal grid, each diamond-shaped unit with an individual leiwen border and centered with a flattened pattern of boss, a single pictogram cast to the well, the sage-green patina with patches of malachite, dark gray and reddish-brown encrustations.

Literature: Christian Deydier, Archaic Bronze Vessels from Private Collections, 2012 Paris.

Note: This kind of Ding with diamond-shaped unit with flattened pattern of boss, was first seen in the second stage of Yinxu, and then gradually spread to the centre and north of Shanxi province. The decoration mainly appeared on the body of food vessel such as ding and gui, towards the early period of Western zhou dynasty.
Compare with a Qixian Ding, with almost same shape and pattern, illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou Qingtongqi Mingwen ji Tuxiang Jicheng, Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 2012, no.206. The two ding suggest the same period, which might between the second or the third stage and the fourth stage of Yinxu.