A Rare Crystal-Inland Red and Black lacquered Ritual Spoon, BI Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD9 ). J. J. Lally & Co. Collection.

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The spoon has a long slender handle and a flat ovoid bowl centered with a faceted rock crystal insert. It is decorated on the handle and on the reverse of the bowl with red scrollwork painted on a dark brownish-black lacquer ground. 10 ¼ in. long, composite stand, plexiglass case.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 1995.

J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 2120.

Christie’s New york , 23 March 2023, lot 807. J. J. Lally & Co Collection.

The spoon has a long slender handle and a flat ovoid bowl centered with a faceted rock crystal insert. It is decorated on the handle and on the reverse of the bowl with red scrollwork painted on a dark brownish-black lacquer ground. 10 ¼ in. long, composite stand, plexiglass case.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 1995.

J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 2120.

Christie’s New york , 23 March 2023, lot 807. J. J. Lally & Co Collection.

A similarly decorated lacquer ritual spoon of closely related form but without a rock crystal insert was discovered at the Qin State cemetery in Shuihudi, Yunmeng, Hubei province, and is illustrated in Yunmeng Shuihudi Qin mu ( Qin Tombs in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County), Beijing, 1981, pl. 17, no. 2 and in a line drawing on p. 33 pl. 34. Archaeologists and scholars today refer to this form of long handled spoon as a bi. According to the Eastern Han dynasty historian Zheng Xuan ( AD 127-200 ) in his commentary on ancient rituals, the Bi was used to handle and divide food during ceremonies.