A RARE LARGE AND FINELY CAST BRONZE RITUAL TRIPOD FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, DING

A bronze ding and cover of similar proportions but of smaller size (24. 3 cm. high), with related bands of flat-cast decoration and with a similar feline with granulated body occupying the central medallion on the cover, is illustrated by Jenny So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections,  The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 126-8, no. 12, where it is dated Eastern Zhou, middle Spring and Autumn period, early to mid-6th century BC. Also illustrated, p. 129, fig. 12.1, is one of three large ding very similar to the current vessel, but of smaller size (40 cm. high), from Shanxi Houma Shangmacun, which also features a similar feline medallion in the center of the cover. So also illustrates, p. 135, fig. 13.4, a fragment of a 6th-century BC ceramic casting mold from Shanxi Houma Niucun, which features abstract interlaced dragon decoration very similar to that seen on the current vessel, “in which the dragon heads have become squared, undetailed forms rendered flush with the vessel surface.”