Ritual wine container (you) with dragons

Object Details

• Provenance

  By 1959

  Tonying & Company, New York, method of acquisition unknown [1]

  By 1959-1987

  Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987), purchased from Tonying & Company, New York [2]

  From 1987

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, gift of Arthur M. Sackler [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See object file for copy of Tonying & Company, Inc., invoice # 131 to Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, dated January 12, 1959, for 1 “Rare Bronze Yu with cover, in the form of two winged animals and birds with two T’ao-T’ie masks.” The Tonying

  Company (Tongyun gongsi) was established in Paris in 1902 by Zhang Renjie (1877-1950), also known as Zhang Jingjiang. Zhang gained an official appointment in 1902 as an attaché of the Qing government’s Minister to France, and while in Paris he established the Tonying Company for the import and sale of works of art, tea and silk. The Tonying Company remained a family business while branching out to New York, from its original base in Paris and its source in Shanghai, where Zhang’s brother-in-law C. F. Yau was the manager.

  [2] See Noel Barnard, “Reviewed Work(s): Prehistoric China, Volume One in the series entitled Archaeology in China by Cheng Te-k’un: Shang China, Volume Two of Archaeology in China by Cheng Te-k’un: China, Volume Twenty-three in the series Ancient Peoples and Places by William Watson, Glyn Daniel” in “Monumenta Serica,” vol. 22, no. 1 (1963), fig. 4a, pp. 213-255. Dr. Arthur M. Sackler was a physician, medical publisher, pharmaceutical marketer, and collector of Asian art.

  [3] Pursuant to the agreement between Arthur M. Sackler and the Smithsonian Institution, dated July 28, 1982, legal title of the donated objects was transferred to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on September 11, 1987.

  Research updated May 19, 2023

• Collection

  Arthur M. Sackler Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Tonying and Company 通運公司 (established 1902)

  Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987)

• Origin

  China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Arthur M. Sackler

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  BCE 1000s

• Name

  Sackler, Arthur M., Tonying and Company

• Place

  China

• Topic

  Bronze, Art, Sculpture, Chinese Art, Shang dynasty (ca. 1600 - ca. 1050 BCE), Dragon, Metal-work

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)