ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2002 Metal - Item 1

1 A very fine bronze jia Shang dynasty Height: 12 1/4 in, 31 cm supported on three splayed legs, each with four faces, the rounded vessel rises from a flat base, steps inward and flares towards the rim that is surmounted by two capped posts. A long, slim strap handle issues from a buffalo’s head; the bold decoration is continuous beneath. The upper register contains two taotie masks between bands of small circles and bowstring lines. The lower register contains a further two taotie masks with two smaller masks where the bodies join. The mould lines are distinct and form a triangular pattern on the underside of the vessel. A single pictogram, a clan name that has been read as yuan, is cast inside the mouth opposite the handle. The surface bears a mellow silvery patina with green areas. A seemingly identical vessel with the same pictogram is illustrated in Yu et al, Selected Bronzes in the Collection of the Poly Art Museum, pp. 11–12, where the pictogram is discussed at length and read as yuan. The reason for this reading is that the pictogram resembles one on oracle bones which are believed to use it as the name of a Shang fortified town in what is now Yuanqu county, northwest of Luoyang in Shanxi province. In this case it is in fact the oldest form of the modern place name Yuan. A li cauldron with the same pictogram is now in the National Museum of Chinese History and there is a suggestion that it might have been excavated at Yuanqu, but this is not firmly established. Parallels are drawn between the Poly Art Museum bronze and jia excavated from Grave 333 at Xiaodun among the early Shang Royal Tombs at Anyang in Henan province.

For related examples, see Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, fig. 2.6, p. 151, and fig. 68, p. 85.