Ritual Cooking Vessel

CultureChinese

Datelate 6th century B.C.E.

MediumBronze with copper inlay

DimensionsOverall: 11 × 16 inches (27.94 × 40.64 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-136/21

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionLarge, circular tripod vessel with a lid. Two bands of strap work ornament on the body and three bands on the lid. Two handles near the upper rim of the body. Three circular knobs on the cover. Green and bright blue patina.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Ding are tripod vessels used for cooking offerings. This ding would have been one of a set, and the number of ding in the set would have defined the rank of the owner. Theoretically, nine ding were reserved for the king of the Zhou dynasty, but by this period the rulers of other states had usurped this privilege. The ornament consists of dragon heads with large horns and interlaced bodies.

Provenance

With Celestin Liu, Peking (modern-day Beijing), China, by July 27, 1931 [1];

Purchased from Celestin Liu, through Langdon Warner (1881-1955), by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

NOTES:

[1] [1] "Kansas City - Itemized Purchases in China and Japan, 1932," no. A-54, Harvard Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 15, folder 28, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 104, fig. 3 (repro.).

P.C. Beam, The Language of Arts (New York: 1958), 424, fig. 218 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 173 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, George L. McKenna, and Marc F. Wilson, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. II, Art of the Orient. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 15 (repro.).

Marc F. Wilson, “Form and Design: Chinese Archaic Bronzes and Jades” Apollo, special issue for the Asian art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. XCVII, no. 133 (March 1973), 51, pl. 9 (repro.).

Catalogue Sotheby’s, sale no. 4963, Important Chinese ceramics, bronzes and works of art: the collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez, USN (ret'd)., (New York: November 18, 1982), no. 18, color pl. 18 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 277 (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 293, pl. 33 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.