WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

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An archaic bronze wine vessel (jue )
Late Shang dynasty
Height: 9I in, 24.2 cm
supported on three long, triangular-section, blade-like legs, the elegant ovoid body is cast
with a frieze of two taotie masks against a leiwen ground; the masks are bisected by a vertical
flange and a strap handle that issues from an animal mask. The long, curving spout is flanked
by two semi-cylindrical posts with waisted caps decorated with horizontal bands and whorls.
The vessel has a mellow patina with malachite and cuprite encrustation.
Formerly in a Western private collection.
A line drawing of a similar vessel is illustrated in Chang, “Li Kung-Lin and the Study of
Antiquity in the Sung Dynasty”, pl. 16, p. 82, where it is noted that Li Kung-Lin “had two
vessel types in his possession that he did not know what to call, and so he pored through
the classics for references and named them chüeh (jue) and ku (gu), by which they are known
to this day”.
For related jue, see Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, no. 28; China: Cultuur
Vroeger en Nu, no. 27, p. 37, in the collection of the Ostasiatiska Museet, Stockholm;
and Finlay, The Chinese Collection: selected works from the Norton Museum of Art, no. 7,
pp. 86–7.
ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008 9