Collection of Edgar Worch (1880-1972), by 1929.

Boston Private Collection.

Osvald Sirén, Histoire des arts anciens de la Chine. Volume I: La période préhistorique, l'époque Tchéou, l'époque Tch'ou et Ts'in [History of the Ancient Art of China: Vol I: The Neolithic Period, the Zhou Period♏, and the Zhou and Qin Periods], Paris and Brussel, 1929, pl. 27.

Rong Geng, Shangzhou yiqi tongkao / The Bronzes of Shang and Chou, Beijing, 1941, vol. 1, p.🌜 291 and vol. 2, pl. 34.

Notable for its bowl-like body and three blade-like zoomorphic legs, the present lot represents a rare group of bronze ding. Inspired by pottery prototypes made in the Neolithic period, bronze versions of this unique꧋ form first appeared d🌌uring the Erligang phase and continued to be produced through to the Shang and Western Zhou dynasty.

See a closely related ding excavated from tomb 269 east of Qijiazhuang, Hebei, in 1984 and preserved by the Anyang City Cultural Work Group, Henan Province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtong qi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes], vol. II, Beijing, 1997, pl. 54. For sold examples, compare an important ding from the collection of Sir Herbert and Lady Hilda Ingram, exhibited in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 37 and sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1990, lot 13; one with a similarly cast intricate central band from the Junkunc Collection was sold at Christie's New York, 21st Sep🏅tember 1995, lot 293; and another sold at Christie's New York, 26th March 2003, lot 152.