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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 1
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 2
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 3
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 4
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 5
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 6
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO Late Shang Dynasty image 7
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF JAY AND MARY JAYNE JONES
Lot 1

AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO
Late Shang Dynasty

Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
15 September 2025, 09:00 EDT
New York

US$25,000 - US$35,000

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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL BELL, NAO

Late Shang Dynasty
Of lenticular section, each side decorated with a later-added taotie mask in relief, the mouth rim gently arched upward, the sides tapering down to a flat base, the hollow splayed shank opening into the base of the bell under areas of mottled malachite encrustation, the interior wall cast with a set of three pictograms below the rim.
6 3/8in (16.2cm) high, wood stand

Footnotes

商晚期 青銅《魚乙》鐃 獸面紋後加

Provenance:
Collection of Rong Hou (1874-1940)
Private American Collection, acquired in England in the late 1970s/early 1980s (by repute)
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 15 March 2015

Published:
Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wencun, Shangyu, 1936, Vol. 18, p. 10, no. 5 (ink rubbing)
Umehara Sueji, Kankarō kikkin zu, Kyoto, 1947, Vol. zhong, p. 42 (photo and ink rubbing)
Yin Zhou jinwen jicheng (Compendium of Yin and Zhou Inscriptions), Shanghai, 1988, Vol. 2, p. 359, no. 409 (ink rubbing)

來源:
榮厚（1874-1940 年）舊藏
美國私人收藏，於 1970 年代末或 1980 年代初購於英國（據傳）
紐約 Ralph M. Chait Galleries，2015 年 3 月 15 日

出版：
羅振玉，《三代吉金文存》，上虞，1936 年，巻 18，頁 10，圖 5 (銘文拓片)
梅原 末治，《冠斝樓吉金圖》，京都，1947 年，巻中，頁 42 (照片及銘文拓片)
《殷周金文集成》，上海，1988 年，巻 2，頁 359，圖版編號 409 (銘文拓片)

The ink rubbing of pictograms on the present lot was published in 1936 by eminent scholar and antiquarian connoisseur Luo Zhenyu (1866-1940), alongside two other pictograms of the same pattern, also from nao bells. Small nao bells of this type were made in sets of three or five in ascending sizes. The slightly raised square panel below the rim on either side is where the strikes should land when playing.

Umehara Sueji (1893-1983) illustrated a photograph and an ink rubbing of the present lot in Kankarō kikkin zu, Kyoto, 1947, Vol. zhong, p. 42, showing the bronze nao bell with its original plain surface. At one point of its history, an antique dealer without the knowledge of the publication history may have decided to clean up the encrustations on the exterior and applied a pair of Western Zhou style taotie masks to increase the monetary value. Fortunately, the pictograms on the interior were untouched.

It is rare to find bronze nao bells cast with taotie masks. A set of three nao bells with taotie masks, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1999, p. 115, no. 91, described as late Shang dynasty and with the middle bell measured 16.8cm.

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