AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, GU

Details

AN ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, GU
SHANG DYNASTY

With flared mouth and pedestal foot, the knop well cast in high relief with two taotie masks set between narrow bowstring borders and two narrow bands of circles, the upper band below yet another bowstring band, with a pictogram cast inside the foot, the smooth patina of mottled pale greenish color with areas of cuprite encrustation
10 1/8in. (25.7cm.) high

Provenance

Stephen Junkunc, III

Literature

Liang Shangchun, Yanku jijin tulu, Beijing, 1944, fig. 1.51

Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 1987, p. 303, fig. 49.21,

Lot Essay

According to Robert Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, op. cit., 1987, the pictogram on this gu appears to be a clan sign associated with Anyang. A variety of vessels seem to have the same pictogram, and are listed by the author on p. 303, where the present lot and a rubbing of its pictogram are illustrated, fig. 49.21. The author also notes that of the eleven vessels with identical inscriptions that he lists, the first five (including the present gu) are said to have been found at Anyang