The body of hemispherical shape subdivided into four sections by flanges, on three tubular feet, with two arched handles rising from the rim, the body cast in relief with two taotie masks on leiwen, the feet incised with hanging triangles and spirals. To the inside wall a pictogram in shape of an animal. Heavily restored. This tripod vessel displays many characteristics of the late Anyang period (second half 13th—mid-11th century BC) and was therefore probably made during the transition to the Western Zhou period. According to the collector's card the piece was purchased in Hong Kong in 1907, whilst Voretzsch was serving there as consul from late 1906 until the outbreak of the First World War.
Height 28.5 cm; width 20.1 cm
Formerly in the collection of Ernst Arthur Voretzsch (1868-1965), and thence by descent
Ill. in: E. A. Voretzsch, Altchinesische Bronzen, Berlin 1924, fig. 4. Cf. a similar vessel, particularly regarding the ridges and the engraved decoration on the legs, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, ill. in: Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, DC, 1987, p. 467, fig. 86.2

---------------------以下為軟件翻譯，僅供參考---------------------