J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

Bronze ladles of this form were made for use with ritual wine vessels such as gong, you, zun, or lei. The bends of the handle allowed the ladle to rest over the side of the vessel with the bowl inside.

Compare the bronze ladle and gong in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji: Xi Zhou, I (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes: Western Zhou, I), Vol. 5, Beijing, 1996, p. 94, no. 99, with description on p. 31.

Similar early Western Zhou bronze ladles in museum and private collections are illustrated by Wang, Chinese Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 2009, pp. 78-79, no. 32; in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels, Taipei, 1989, p. 155, no. 47; and in the collection of Shaanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated in Shaanxi chutu Shang Zhou qingtongqi (Shang and Zhou Bronzes Unearthed in Shaanxi Province), Vol. I, Beijing, 1979, p. 132, no. 151 with description on p. 23 noting that the ladle was inside a you vessel when excavated. Two other archaic bronze ladles of similar form were shown at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-36, catalogue no. 237, from the Stoclet Collection, Brussels, and no. 319, from the Duan Fang altar set now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.