The Zuo Ce Shi Gu, Late Shang dynasty | 商末 作冊尸觚

Collection of Tadao Kobayashi (1922-2008), acquired in Asia between the 1950s and 1960s.

Sotheby's New York, 13th September 2017, lot 70.

Tadao Kobayashi (1922-2008) 收藏，1950至60年代得於亞洲

紐約蘇富比2017年9月13日，編號70

The owner of this ritual bronze, as indicated by the inscription, was Zuo Ce Shi. The two characters, Zuo Ce refer to a high rank official position during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The officials under this title were responsible for drafting and decreeing royal orders on behalf of the king. They belonged to one of the highest elite classes of the empire and enjoyed a prestigious social status at the time. According to surviving bronze inscriptions, Zuo Ce were recorded to be appointed at important positions during political events and ritual ceremonies and often generously rewarded by the rulers for their contributions.

The single pictogram from the inscription, niao (bird), indicates the clan, to which Zuo Ce Shi belonged. Several other late Shang dynasty gu from the same clan have been recorded, including one from the City Art Museum of St. Louis (today's Saint Louis Art Museum), illustrated in J. Edward Kidder, Jr., Early Chinese Bronzes in the City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 1956, pl. I; and another, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed., Yinzhou jinwen jicheng [Compendium of Bronze Inscriptions from Yin and Zhou Dynasties], Beijing, 2007, no. 06675.