A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, DING SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY BC | 商公元前十二世紀 青銅亞醜鼎 《亞醜》銘

Acquired in Japan prior to World War II.

Christie's New York, 15th September 2009, lot 296.

第二次世界大戰前得於日本

紐約佳士得2009年9月15日，編號296

Notable for the crisp and linear rendering of its design band, this piece represents an unusual group of ding. Bronze ritual vessels fashioned with three flat legs in the form of menacing dragons with open mouths derive their form from pottery prototypes made from the Neolithic period. Pottery vessels of this form continued to be produced through to the Erlitou and Erligang phases, when the first bronze versions also appeared.

While ding of this type were popular through to the Western Zhou dynasty, the tall legs and shallow shape of the present example places it in the latter part of the Shang dynasty. The unusually linear rendering of the band of cicada, a generally subsidiary motif, further suggests a date in the last centuries of the dynasty, probably after the move of the capital to Yinxu, present-day Anyang in Henan province. A ding with straight columnar legs, decorated with a closely related cicada band, was unearthed at Anyang, and illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of inscriptions and images of bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 1, pl. 89, together with a ding in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Beijing University, pl. 88.

Vessels of this form and decorated with a band of cicada above pendant lappets are very unusual and no other closely related example appears to have been published. Ding of this type are more commonly known with zoomorphic masks or dragons, such as a slightly larger ding also unearthed at Anyang, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese archaic bronzes], vol. 2, Beijing, 1997, pl. 57; and another, reputedly from Anyang, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, accession no. F30549.

Bronzes bearing the inscription ya zhou include a gui vessel illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1990, fig. 38.1, p. 362. There is also a number of Shang bronze ritual vessels in the National Palace Museum with a ya chou inscription, but differently written. These include the fangding illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pl. 97. It is believed that ya chou was a powerful clan in Shandong which flourished during the late Shang dynasty to the early Western Zhou period.

青銅「亞醜」鼎，勁拔有力，紋飾清晰俐落，珍稀罕見。此類青銅鼎，扁足綴螭龍紋，龍口大開，造形可溯自新石器時期陶器，沿作至二里頭、二里崗時期，並初現青銅作例。

此類青銅鼎造形，高足淺身，盛行於商末西周。器身主體飾線刻蟬紋，甚是少見，以此推測，本品或應造於商朝晚期，遷都殷墟之後，現河南安陽。參考安陽出土一例，鼎圓直足，器身綴相類蟬紋，刊於吳鎮烽，《商周青銅器銘文暨圖像集成》，卷1，圖版89，同錄一件青銅鼎，藏於北京大學賽克勒考古與藝術博物館，圖版88。

此類圓鼎扁足器形搭配雙層蟬紋者，極為罕有，著錄未見相似作例。形制類同者，多飾饕餮紋或龍紋，如一件尺寸較大之青銅鼎，亦出土於安陽，錄於《中國青銅器全集》，卷2，北京，1997年，圖版57；斯德哥爾摩東亞博物館藏一例，據傳出自安陽，博物館編號F30549。

台北故宮博物院藏數件「亞醜」銘青銅器，如一件青銅方鼎，載於《故宮商代青銅禮器圖錄》，台北，1998年，圖版97。並參考一件青銅簋，刊錄於羅森，《Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections》，華盛頓特區，1990年，圖38.1，頁362。據存世鑄器考之，「亞醜」應為晚商至西周時期，山東一帶權勢強大、富裕鼎盛之家族。