WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1100-771 B.C.)

The present you can be compared to a very similarly shaped you dated to the early Western Zhou period, also decorated with the ‘stripes and rivets’ design and a domed cover with animal head-finials, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1983, p. 90-91, pl. 27. A detailed discussion of this style of decoration is provided by René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé in Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, p. 100. Another you vessel of similar shape, design and dating is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, pp. 448-49, no. 67.

The present lot is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, am Main, dated 14 September, 1958.