Ritual vessel (<em>yi</em>) with cover
date: label: Date
content: 6th century BCE
label: Period
content: Eastern Zhou dynasty
notes: label: Provenance
content: Possibly Ding collection, Weixian, Shandong province, China [1]
label: Provenance
content: To 1915
label: Provenance
content: Marcel Bing (1875-1920), Paris, France [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1915 to 1961
label: Provenance
content: Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) and Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), Washington, DC and Mt. Kisco, NY, purchased from Marcel Bing through C. T. Loo, Lai Yuan & Co., New York, NY in December 1915 [3]
label: Provenance
content: 1959 to 1961
label: Provenance
content: Agnes E. Meyer inherited upon the death of her husband, Eugene Meyer on July 17, 1959 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 1961
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, 1961 [5]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See C. T. Loo, Lai-Yuan & Co.'s invoice, cited in note 3.
label: Provenance
content: The invoice includes a note that the bronze came from "Collection Ting of Wei-Shien."
label: Provenance
content: [2] Bing's ownership is documented in several locations. See, for example: November 11, 1915 letter from Marcel Bing to Charles Lang Freer; letters from December 10 and 15 from Eugene Meyer to Charles Lang Freer; telegrams exchanged between Marcel Bing, Charles Lang Freer, and Eugene Meyer dating from November 15 to December 5, 1915; and February 2, 1916 letter from Charles Lang Freer to Marcel Bing. Copies of aforementioned documents in object file. See also Thomas Lawton and Linda Merrill, Freer: A Legacy of Art (Washington DC: Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1993), pp. 220-221.
label: Provenance
content: [3] Eugene Meyer, Agnes E. Meyer, and Charles Lang Freer negotiated with Marcel Bing to arrange a joint purchase of Bing's collection of 11 Chinese bronzes and 1 jade. See correspondence cited in note 2. The Meyers and Freer decided to divide the collection - Meyers acquiring 5 bronzes (including this object) and Freer acquiring 6 bronzes in addition to the jade -- and the price, calculating each party's payment was based on the appraisal values assigned to each piece. The Meyers ultimately sent the entire payment to C. T. Loo, Lai Yuan & Company (sometimes appears as Lai-Yuan), who in turn wired money to Bing. Lai Yuan & Company received a consigners fee from Bing. Meyers made the payment in early December 1915, with Freer paying the Meyers for the objects destined for his collection on December 14, 1915. All the objects included in this large sale, which were originally divided between the Meyers and Freer, are now in the museum's collection ( F1915.102; F1915.03a-b; F1915.104; F1915.105; F1915.106a-f; F1915.107; F1915.108; F1961.30a-b; F1961.32a-b; F1968.28; F1968.29). For a full explanation of the joint endeavor between the Meyers and Freer, see: Dorota Chudzicka, "'In Love at First Sight Completely, Hopelessly, and Forever with Chinese Art': The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Collection of Chinese Art at the Freer Gallery of Art" in Collections Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer 2004), 334-335.
label: Provenance
content: Shortly after the acquisition, the Meyers lent the bronze to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, see S. C. Bosch Reitz, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916), cat. 341 (ill.).
label: Provenance
content: [4] Eugene Meyer died in Washington D.C. on July 17, 1959. Upon his death, his wife, Agnes E. Meyer inherited the entirety of the couple's collection.
label: Provenance
content: [5] See Agnes Meyer's Deed of Gift, dated December 21, 1961, copy in object file.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (February 18, 1983 to April 1, 1987)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (March 15, 1982 to June 15, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Memorial Exhibition (September 25, 1971 to October 2, 1972)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Marcel Bing (1875-1920)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer
place: label: Origin
content: Xingzheng, China
topic: label: Topic
content: casting
label: Topic
content: inlay (process)
label: Topic
content: metal
label: Topic
content: bronze
label: Topic
content: animal
label: Topic
content: Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 - 221 BCE)
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1961.31a-b
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Bronze with semi-precious stone inlay
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (overall): 20.5 x 17.7 x 32 cm (8 1/16 x 6 15/16 x 12 5/8 in)