A RARE BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, GUI

EARLY BRONZES AND JADES THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

Details

A RARE BRONZE RITUAL VESSEL, GUI
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

The deep sides crisply cast in relief with two pairs of dragons with bulbous eye, curled snout and crest, single clawed foot and a coiled body, each pair confronted on a notched flange and reserved on a band of leiwen, separated by a pair of loop handles issuing from the mouth of a dragon at the everted rim and cast below with a pendent tab, the whole raised on a waisted pedestal foot encircled by pairs of dragons on leiwen bands separated by plain flanges, the silvery-gray surface with blue-green encrustation and some lapis encrustation on the base
10¼in. (26cm.) across handles

Lot Essay

Compare the very similar gui included in the exhibition, Bronzes de la Chine Antique, Lyon, October 4-December 4, 1988, Catalogue, no. 32. Another quite similar gui was illustrated by d'Argencé, The Hans Popper Collection of Oriental Art, Japan, 1973, no. 5

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766p85 is consistent with the dating of this lot