RARE BRONZE RECTANGULAR RITUAL FOOD VESSEL (FANGDING)

Late Shang Dynasty, ca. 11th century BC. The body is slightly tapering, formed in a deep rectangular body which has been raised on four columnar supports, each delicately cast in high relief at the top with a taotie mask with sternly depicted ears which are ever watching. The body is cast in high relief on each side with a band of decoration motifs with what appear to be kui dragons. The everted rim is set with a pair of inverted U-shaped handles. The bronze has a milky green patinated surface with malachite and cuprite encrustation. The Fangding was considered to be the most highly regarded of all Chinese bronze ritual vessels, used as a cauldron standing on four raised supports, traditionally used for cooking and storing of ritual offerings to ancestors, these were place on the family altar for worship in order to gain positive favour and continuation against evil. For similar see: The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: EA1956.834. Size: L:222mm / W:170mm; 1.8kg Provenance: Private collection of a London doctor; formerly in a Somerset Estate collection; acquired from Hong Kong galleries in the early 1990s.