IMPORTANT ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YA... Lot 47

IMPORTANT ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YA CHOU FU XIN GUIFin Shang dynasty/early Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 11th century B.C. AN IMPORTANT ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, YA CHOU FU XIN GUILate Shang dynasty/early Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 11th century BCheavily cast with a deep rounded body raised on a high splayed foot, rising to a flared rim, the sides set with a pair of handles issuing from streamlined flat-eared bovine heads, and issuing short hooked tabs, the body cast on east side with a large taotie mask flanked by a pair of taloned and quilled dragons, below a narrow neck band containing two beaked single-bodied dragons centering on a raised animal head in axial position on each side, the foot similarly decorated with two beaked confronting dragons on either side of a ridge with a taotie shield, the inside cast with a four-character inscription reading 'ya chou fu xin', the bronze a smooth, dark brownish-red colour. 30cm (11 3/4in) wide; 15.8cm (6 1/4in) high. Footnotes: THE PROPERTY OF A LADY 女士藏品 商晚期/西周早期，約公元前十一世紀 亞醜父辛簋 Provenance: Collection of Huang Jun (1880-1951), Zungu Zhai, Beijing, by 1936Collection of Hans-Jürgen von Lochow (1902-1989), Beijing, by 1943Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co, Hamburg, 5 May 1958, lot 3A German private Collection since 1958, and thence by descent Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: Huang Jun, Zungu zhai suojian jijin tu , Beijing, 1936, chapter 1, fol.47Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wencun, Beijing, 1936, chapter 6, fol.17 Gustav Ecke, Sammlung Lochow: Chinesische Bronzen, Beijing 1943, pl.XI a-dYin Chih-yi, 'Shandong Yidu Subutun mudi de Ya Chou tongqi', in Kaogu xuebao, 1977 (2), pp.23-33, p.24, fig.5, and p.25Vadime Elisseeff, Bronzes Archaïques Chinois au Musée Cernuschi. Archaic Chinese Bronzes , Vol. I - Tome 1, Paris, 1977, p.141Yan Yiping, Jinwen zongji (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions), Taipei, 1983, vol.3, no.1049Minao Hayashi, In Shū Jidai seidōki no kenkyū: In Shū seidōki souran (Research on Bronze ware of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Tokyo, 1984, p.94, no.113 Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1990, vol.1, p.362, fig.38.1Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo, Yin Zhou jinwen jicheng shiwen, Hong Kong, 2001, vol.3, p.58, fig.3332Shandong Museum, Shandong jinwen jicheng, Jinan, 2007, p.262 來源： 黃濬 (1880-1951）舊藏，尊古齋，北京，1936年入藏馮洛侯（1902-1989）舊藏，鐃齋，北京，1943年入藏Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co.，漢堡，1958年5月5日，編號3德國私人收藏，1958年入藏，並由後人保存迄今 出版： 黃濬，《尊古齋所見吉金圖卷》，北京，1936，卷1，圖版47羅振玉，《三代吉金文存》，北京，1936, 卷6，圖版17艾鍔風，《鐃齋吉金錄》，北京，1943年，圖版XI a-d殷之彝（张长寿）：《山東蘇埠屯墓地和'亞醜'銅器》，《考古学报》1977年第2期，頁23-33，頁24-25，圖25， 頁25Vadime Elisseeff，《塞努奇博物館藏中國古代青銅器》，巴黎，1977年，卷1，頁141嚴一萍，《金文總集》，臺北，1983，卷3，編號1049林巳奈夫，《殷周時代青銅器的研究》，東京，1984年，頁94，編號113杰西卡-罗森，《赛克勒所藏西周青銅禮器》, 華盛頓，1990年，卷1，頁362,圖38.1中國社會科學院考古研究所編, 《殷周金文集成釋文》， 香港，2001年，卷3， 頁58，圖三三三二山東省博物館，《山東金文集成》，濟南，2007年，頁262 Cast in Brilliance: The von Lochow 'Ya Chou Fu Xin Gui' This archaic bonze gui, which may be referred to as the Ya Chou Fu Xin gui, was acquired by the father of the present owner in 1958 when he bought it at auction from Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co. a long-established auction house in Hamburg, Germany (Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, Hamburg, 5th May 1958, lot 3). In the 1950s, the market for Chinese art in Germany was insignificant yet between 1955 and 1959 Hauswedell in Hamburg sold several important Chinese archaic bronzes. Like the present gui , quite a few of these vessels had illustrious late 19th and early 20th century provenances, at least one bronze vessel had been in the Imperial collection, see Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co, Hamburg, 9th December 1957, lot 4. Similarly, the provenance of this bronze gui can also be traced back to the first half of the 20th century. The 1958 Hauswedell catalog entry notes that the Ya Chou Fu Xin gui had first been published by Huang Jun (1880-1951), a prominent Beijing dealer in Chinese antiquities and owner of Zungu Zhai, a well-known Beijing antique shop founded by his uncle. Huang Jun, also known by his literary name Huang Bochuan, had been trained in foreign languages, and was fluent in German, English and French. He was well acquainted with Western collectors and dealers living in Beijing at the time. Huang Jun handled, studied, collected, and eventually sold many important archaic bronzes. His interest was academic as well as commercial, and he published several catalogs on archaic bronzes including the Zungu zhai suojian jijin tujuan (1936) and Ye zhong pianyu erji/sanji (1937 and 1942). These catalogs were printed in small numbers and were made using the most advanced techniques. Objects were illustrated in collotype technique, a laborious photomechanical flat printing process that allowed to reproduce the fine lines and varying tones and shades of the works more accurately than traditional rubbings used to duplicate archaic bronzes in older catalogs. A collotype print of the Ya Chou Fu Xin gui appears in th