Beschreibung:

AN EXCEPTIONAL AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL AND COVER, GONG LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC The deep vessel and conformingly shaped cover are finely cast as a fierce tiger at the front and an owl at the back, their heads at either end of the cover above their bodies that decorate the sides of the vessel. The head of the tiger has bared, square teeth and curved incisors, bulging eyes and upright, C-shaped ears. The owl's head has similar eyes encircled by feathers and a short, hooked beak positioned above two confronted birds below. The two heads are joined by a thin, notched flange that forms the elongated body of a kui dragon that also separates two relief-cast kui dragons that confront each other behind the owl's ears. The scroll-filled body of the tiger is cast in rounded relief and shown crouching as if ready to spring, its short forelegs raised on either side of the spout below small, intaglio dragons and its rear legs bent above the tall, oblong foot where the clawed feet and long, curled tail are detailed in front of the taloned feet of the owl. The owl's feet are positioned below its scroll-filled and relief-cast wings that sweep back from scale-like feathers on the chest from which projects a loop handle cast with D-shaped scales and capped by the head of a mythical beast with ram's horns and hooked beak above wings on the sides and a hooked terminal below. All of the decoration is reserved on various leiwen grounds, and the vessel and cover have a mottled green patina with some areas of light encrustation. An inscription, wei, consisting of four footprints around a sanctuary enclosing a ce (album or book), is cast in the center of the interior of the vessel. 11 ¾ in. (29.8 cm.) long