Square lidded wine container (fanghu) with geometric decoration

1913
Reportedly excavated from a tomb near Yü-Ling Fu (Yulin fu), Shaanxi [1]

To 1915
Marcel Bing (1875-1920), Paris, France [2]

1915 to 1959
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 in December 1915 [3]

1959 to 1961
Agnes E. Meyer inherited upon the death of her husband, Eugene Meyer on July 17, 1959 [4]

From 1961
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, 1961 [5]

Notes:
[1] A note in C. T. Loo, Lai-Yuan & Co.'s invoice issued to Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Meyer, dated December 10, 1915, the bronze was excavated from a tomb near Yü-Ling Fu (Yulin fu), Shaanxi, in 1913. This information was included in S. C. Bosch Reitz, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916), cat. 339 (ill.) and in a catalogue entry for the bronze in Otto Kümmel's publication accompanying an exhibition organized by Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in Berlin in 1929, see Otto Kümmel, Zweihundert Hauptwerke der Ausstellung der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in der Preussischen Akademie der Künste (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1930), no. 34. More recently, based on stylistic comparisons, Jenny So proposed a Henan provenance for the bronze, see Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1995), p. 49, fig. 79.

[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 Lawton and Merrill 1993, cited in note 1.

[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, who in turn wired money to Bing. Lai Yuan & Company (sometimes spelled Lai-Yuan) 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.

Shortly after the acquisition, the Meyers lent this bronze to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, see S. C. Bosch Reitz, see note 1, image 339.

[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.

[5] See Agnes E. Meyer's Deed of Gift, dated December 21, 1961, copy in object file.