A small archaic bronze ritual food vessel (ding) Late Shang dynasty, 12th / 11th Century BC

set upon crisply cast 'gui dragon' blade legs with sharply curling tails forming the legs, the hemispherical body rising to an everted rim set with two squared arch handles, cast around the sides with a single register consisting of three taotie masks divided by short flanges, each mask with a pair of slit-boss eyes centered on a further flange, with two pictograms cast to the interior below the rim, the gray patina with malachite encrustation

Acquired by the present owner in the early 1990s; prior to that, on the Japanese art market in the early 1980s.

Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2001 - 2006.

Under UV light the vessel appears to be structurally in very good condition. The legs appear to only have been expectedly broken at the joins to the body. There does appear to be some artificial patination on the legs possibly masking overcleaning.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The inscription on this vessel consists of the character shan (mountain) followed by the cyclical graph xing.

Ding with these striking blade feet are rare, but even rarer are those with flanges on the body, although a related piece with six small projecting flanges was sold at Christie's London, 15th June 1998, lot 37. See also a vessel in the Fujii Yurinkan, Kyoto, illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, p. 432, fig. 77.5, together with three further examples of ding lacking the flanges on the body, one in the Nanjing Museum, fig. 80.3, one in the Shanghai Museum, fig. 80.4 and a third from the Arthur M. Sackler collection, pl. 81.

Compare also a ding with striking dragon-shaped legs, which appear to have been made from the middle to late Anyang period to the early Western Zhou, included in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pl. 20; and another related vessel, excavated at Qijiazhuang near Anyang in Henan province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 2, Beijing, 1997, pl. 54.   

See also a piece from one of the Western Zhou cemeteries at Baoji in Shaanxi province, published in Lu Liancheng and Hu Zhisheng, Baoji Yu guo mudi/ Yu State Cemeteries in Baoji, vol. 1, Beijing, 1988, p. 52, fig. 38, and vol. 2, pl. 17, fig. 1. Another ding from the collection of Sir Herbert and Lady Ingram, included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat.no. 37, was sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1990, lot 13.