The Fu Ding You, Late Shang / Early Western Zhou dynasty | 商末 / 西周初 父丁卣

Sotheby's New York, 4th December 1984, lot 17.

紐約蘇富比1984年12月4日，編號17

Y.P. Lee, Important Inscribed Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels from the Li Yingshuan Collection in the Shanghai Museum, vol. II, Shanghai, 1996, pl. 40.

李爾白，《李蔭軒所藏中國青銅器》，卷2，上海，1996年，圖版40

It is rare to find a you flanked by a pair of rhinoceros heads, and even rarer to find one cast with the motif of confronting birds; the combination of both makes this you exceptional. This unusual vessel bears two three-character inscriptions, one to the interior of the vessel, the other to the interior of the lid, indicating that the vessel was dedicated to Father Ding. The pictogram identifies the clan, to which the owner of this vessel belonged. This highly graphical clan sign does not appear to be associated with a modern Chinese character. 

Only two other you of this confronting-bird design appear to be published. A taller you with an eight-character inscription with decorative bands closely related to this vessel, but lacking the leiwen pattern on the foot, of elongated form and the handle with animal masks of different shape, was sold in our London rooms, 11th June 1996, lot 117. See also the Ge Fu Gui You 戈父癸卣, with decorations on the lid and the shoulder similar to the present piece, but with an extra pair of birds on each side, excavated in 1991 from Gaojiabu, Jingyang county, Shaanxi province, now in the Jingyang Museum, Shaanxi province, illustrated in Li Xixing, The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi'an, 1994, pl. 155. 

A few you vessels with rhinoceros-head terminals on the handle are in museum collections. Two of them are in the Palace Museum, Beijing: the Si Si Yang Qi You 四祀弋阝其卣, a large and important you excavated at Anyang, Henan province, with a 42-character long inscription on the base recording that the vessel was made in the 4th year of the last king of the Shang dynasty, the lid, handle and foot decorated with leiwen and the shoulder with a band of taotie pattern, illustrated in Gugong qingtong qi / Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1999, pl. 65; and the Dao Fu Xin You 刀父辛卣 (accession no. gu-77010), from the Qing Court Collection, included in Yan Yiping, Jinwen zongji [Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions], Taipei, 1983, no. 5169. Compare a further you from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (accession no. B60B82), where the lid and shoulder are decorated with a taotie frieze composed of triple-tiered scrolls, illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre D'Argencé, Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, pl. XXXV (right).