An archaic bronze ritual tripod vessel, jia


Late Shang/early Western Zhou Dynasty The bulbous vessel divided into three lobes each tapering to a straight leg, simplistically cast with zigzagging bowstrings, flanked with a buffalo head issuing a loop handle, rising to a flaring rim set with two staves with domed caps.23cm (9in) high
|Provenance: Christie's, 4 December 1995, lot 34The present rare lobed jia is a direct continuation of the tripod wine vessel form, elements of which can be seen as early as the late Xia period, 18th-16th century BC, continuing until the middle Western Zhou period. Towards the end of the Shang Dynasty the jia had developed the li-shaped body with a tri-lobed form, as seen on the present lot, which then continued onto the Western Zhou period; see C. Deydier, Archaic Chinese Bronzes, I, Xia & Shang, Paris, 1995, pp.237, 239.Compare two very similar bronze lobed tripod vessels, jia, the first in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections and the second, the Mu Gui jia, said to be from Anyang, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by R.W.Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Cambridge, Mass., 1987, pp.172-173 and 175, fig.10.2.