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Lot Essay
The inscriptions on this ding vessel are engraved rather than cast. In the late Spring and Autumn period, the development of iron metallurgy allowed craftsmen to inscribe and decorate the bronze with tools that are harder than bronze. Despite the technical advancement, piece-mold casting technique remained as the predominant fabrication method of bronzes. The inscriptions, nanli (southern li), zuo (left), and nan (south) probably indicate the placement of this vessel in ritual context.
The wide band of dragon scroll on this ding is very similar to that seen on a bronze ding to the dated late Spring and Autumn period, late 6th-early 5th century BC, North Central China, Shanxi-Henan provinces and illustrated by J. So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 146-49, no. 17, and shown in a rubbing, p. 148. Also illustrated are drawings of two ding from Shanxi province, ibid., p. 149, figs. 17.2 and 17.3, as well as a fragment of a ceramic pattern model from Houma city, Shanxi province, fig. 17.4.
The wide band of dragon scroll on this ding is very similar to that seen on a bronze ding to the dated late Spring and Autumn period, late 6th-early 5th century BC, North Central China, Shanxi-Henan provinces and illustrated by J. So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1995, pp. 146-49, no. 17, and shown in a rubbing, p. 148. Also illustrated are drawings of two ding from Shanxi province, ibid., p. 149, figs. 17.2 and 17.3, as well as a fragment of a ceramic pattern model from Houma city, Shanxi province, fig. 17.4.