Ritual Wine Vessel
- 232
Like you and hu vessels, the lei held wine. We don’t know precisely how the functions of the three types differed, but it may be that each was associated with a particular ritual.
The body of this vessel is decorated with a variety of birds and dragons, each carefully designed to fill its allotted space. As is usual on fang lei, the mask on the lid is for some unknown reason orientated upside down. The handle at the top is decorated with a small cicada, perhaps symbolizing regeneration.
With J. T. Tai (1911-1992), Shanghai, China, by March 1949;
Purchased from J. T. Tai by C. T. Loo & Co., New York, NY, stock no. 46413, March 1949-1954 [1];
Purchased from C. T. Loo Chinese Art by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1954.
NOTES:
[1] C. T. Loo and Frank Caro archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy of stock card in NAMA curatorial files. Following C. T. Loo's retirement, C. T. Loo, Inc. was dissolved by the summer of 1953 and the New York business continued as C. T. Loo Chinese Art under the direction of Frank Caro.
“Recent Acquisitions,” Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, vol. viii (New York: Asia Society, 1954), 54, fig. 15 -16 (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), 169 (repro.).
Capolavori nei Secoli: enciclopedia di tutti le arti, di tutti i popoli, in tutti i tempi, no. 25 (Milano: Fratelli Fabbri, May 12, 1962), 15D (repro.).
Sueji Umehara, Yin Hsu, Aniceint Capitial of the Shang Dynasty at Anyang (Tokyo: 1964), 97, Ill (repro.).
William Y. Willetts, Foundations of Chinese Art from Neolithic Pottery to Modern Architecture. 322 illus. in Colour and Black and White, 91 Maps, and Line Drawings (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), pl. 73 (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), 10 (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), 272 (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), 288, pl. 16 (repro.).
