The Xijia Pan bronze basin (Photo/Courtesy of the Xiling Yinshe)
The Xijia Pan, a Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771BC) bronze pan (basin) vessel, sold for 185 million yuan ($27.3 million) at a Xiling Yinshe auction in East China's Zhejiang Province Saturday.
Once part of the imperial collection during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the bronze vessel is 47 centimeters in diameter and features a 130-character long inscription on the inside of the basin that dates it to the reign of King Xuan of Zhou (827-782BC).
The vessel is named after Xijia, the individual whose name appears in the inscription.
"The inscription on the plate is a valuable historical record that helps to fill in the historical blanks of existing classics. The content of the inscription is rarely seen among bronzes from the Western Zhou Dynasty," commented Wu Zhenfeng, a member of the China Relics Identification and Evaluation Committee, in a Hangzhou Daily article on July 10.
