Provenance:
J.M. Davenport Collection
Acquired in Hong Kong prior to September 16th, 1966 as indicated by an appraisal by Hartman Rare Art of New York from that date

Illustrated:
"Chinese Jade, the J.M. Davenport Collection," Jadestone, 2008.

Reference/Notes:

*Compare to a similar archaistic li ding of a slightly later date and greener material illustrated by the National Palace Museum in the catalogue accompanying The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court. The referenced example was clearly intended as a contemporary (Qing) replica of a Shang Dynasty bronze. The Daven- port example is not only emulating an archaic bronze in form, but has been finished in a manner that was intended to give the appearance of a buried archaic jade.

*The li ding is considered a hybrid of the two cooking vessels; the li and the ding. The general form and decoration is that of the ding, but the pouch-like bulges above the legs derive from the li and are thought by some to allude to a predecessor constructed of leather or malleable material. The form is discussed to a minor extent by Dedier in Les Bronzes Chinois, page 198. A closely related bronze example is also illustrated on page 215, fig. 2.

*Another related example in jade is in the Avery Brundage collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and currently on display with rest of the collection.

*The Avery Brundage Collection also contains several Archaic Shang Dynasty li ding in bronze illustrated by d’Argence in Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, plates VI and VII. The form is also discussed in the corresponding text.