Early Western Zhou Dynasty The rounded elliptical body rising from a broad, thickly cast and slightly spreading foot decorated with a frieze of two paired birds with long hooked tails in low relief on a leiwen ground divided at the middle by a high relief bovine mask on front and back, the shoulder set with two loops on the bail handle concealed by two further bovine heads, the domed cover with a similar frieze near the edge above the slightly concave sides, and with two neat bowstrings with everted tabs on either end and surmounted by a ring-shaped knob, the interior of the body and cover each cast with the same three-character inscription zuo baoyi (Made this precious ritual vessel), the bronze mottled with green patina on the surface and green and azurite encrustation on the interior, box. 27.5cm (11 3/4in) high. (2).Footnotes西周早期 青銅鳳鳥紋貘首提樑卣 銘文： 作寶彝（器底及蓋內） Provenance: T. T. Tsui Collection, acquired prior to the 1970s (by repute) A Hong Kong private collection, acquired on 4 January 2011 來源: 傳徐展堂舊藏，蒐集於1970年代以前 香港私人收藏，於2011年1月4日購得 Illustrated and Published: Imperial Treasures: Archaic Chinese Bronzes from the Golden Age of China, Joyce Gallery, Hong Kong, 2012, pp.74-75 出版及著錄： 《吉金御賞》，御雅居，香港，2012年，頁74-75 Compare with a similar bronze you in the Shanghai Museum, early Western Zhou Dynasty, which is illustrated by P.F.Chen in the Xiashangzhou qingtongqi yanjiu: Xizhou Shamg (Study of the Archaic Bronzes of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Vol.I of Western Zhou Dynasty), Shanghai, 2004, pl.267.Compare also with a related bronze you, early Western Zhou Dynasty, which was sold at Sotheby's New York, 21 March 2018, lot 584. 蓋隆頂，口沿微束，蓋頂近簷處飾一對鳳鳥，正中出戟，組成饕餮紋一組，前後兩面，兩側耳狀隆起，圓形捉手，卣身平口，頸部略微內收，飾鳳鳥紋前後一對以正中凸起之貘首為對稱，兩側安環耳，環內套鑄U形提樑，兩頭作貘首，卣腹鼓下垂，圈足外撇，器蓋及身內鑄銘文三字：「作寶彝」，綠鏽雜孔雀綠。 此類垂腹貘首之提樑卣一度流行於西周早期，比較上海博物館藏一件極其類似之例，見陳佩芬著，《夏商周青銅器研究：西周篇上》，上海，2004年，圖版267。又可參考蘇富比紐約售出一件西周早期提樑卣，2018年3月21日，拍品編號584。