A VERY RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, JUE
Late Shang Dynasty
The vessel with a deep U-shaped body rising from three spreading triangular blade legs to a pointed rim opposite a guttered spout flanked by a pair of posts capped with conical 'fire-whorl' medallions, the exterior boldly cast with studs evenly spaced within a diamond pattern, one side set with a loop handle, a pictogram under the handle, Japanese wood box.
17cm (6 3/4in) high. (2).

Footnotes:

Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價

商晚期 青銅乳釘紋爵

Provenance: Mayuyama and Co., Tokyo
Kochukyo Ltd., Japan.
Christie's New York, 22 March 2007, lot 242

Published and Illustrated: Sueji Umehara, Nihon shucho shina kodo seika, vol.3, Yamanaka shokai, 1961, no.299 (top).
Roger Keverne Ltd., Winter Exhibition, London, 2007, no.1.

來源：東京古董商繭山龍泉堂
東京古董商壺中居
紐約佳士得，2007年3月22日，拍品編號242

出版著錄：梅原末治，《日本蒐儲支那古銅精華》，卷三，山中商會，1961年，編號299（最上）
Roger Keverne Ltd.，《冬季展覽》，倫敦，2002年，編號71


The pictogram consists of an inverted arrowhead rendered in fine, raised lines.

The diamond-and-boss decoration on the present lot is very rare on jue vessels, and is usually found on gui or yu. See for example, yu vessels with this decoration illustrated by R.Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M.Sackler Collections, pp.504-509, nos.98 and 99, where it is noted that 'yu with diamond-and-boss decoration, probably an invention of Anyang foundries..., enjoyed an extraordinary vogue with predynastic Zhou casters and continued in fashion for a short time after the Zhou conquest.'

See a similar bronze inscribed jue, late Shang dynasty, which was sold at Bonhams London, 5 November 2020, lot 3.

Vessel inspected with the naked eye in the absence of X-rays: wear to surface including small chips, nicks, scratches and cuts to the extremities; small cracks to legs and possible restoration; chemical accretions and verdigris; some casting imperfections and patches of probable restoration to the body, the largest approx 3x1.5cm.