A RARE RITUAL BRONZE VESSEL 'LI' WITH INSCRIPTION, China, probably late to mid Western Zhou dynasty, a very similar (possibly the present piece) from the collection of Duanfang has the same inscription on the border near corrosion - Property from a North German private collection, assembled prior to 1980 - Cf. Christie's New York, 15.3.2017, Lot 528 a similar vessel from the collection of the Fujita Museum, Japan - Li with striated decoration were inspired by pottery prototypes and were popular during the middle to late Western Zhou dynasty. A set of five similar li vessels with Weibo inscriptions was found in a hoard in Zhuangbai village, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, and illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng in Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Complete Collection of Inscriptions and Images of the Shang and Zhou Bronzes), vol. 6, Shanghai, 2012, pp. 85-89, nos. 2702-2706. The Weibo li have more slender legs and taller proportions like the present tongjiang zuo zun li and can be dated by inscription to the latter part of the middle Western Zhou dynasty. A group of late Western Zhou li vessels with Zhong Ji inscriptions are very similar to the present li. See ibid., pp. 127-133, nos. 2746-2752 - Provenance: Former old German private collection, by repute in Germany since the 1920's, collected by a German merchant in Bremen, who assembled his collection in China since 1894 - Partly corroded