EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, KANG GUI
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is raised on a tall foot encircled by a band comprised of four dissolved taotie with raised, oblong eyes and centered on a narrow flange. The lower body is decorated with a diamond-and-boss band between narrow borders of circles cast in thread relief, and the upper body with a band of 'eyes' alternating with squared scrolls centered on two sides by a small animal mask cast in relief and interrupted on the other two sides by a pair of handles issuing from horned dragon masks. Each is cast in linear intaglio on the top with the facial features and horns of the mask, on the sides with ears and fanged jaws above scale pattern, and on the front below the mask with a horned mask above a cicada. An eight-character inscription, reading ya gao kang zuo fu gui zun yi, is crisply cast in the bottom of the interior. The patina is of mottled greyish-green color.
6 3/8 in. (16.3 cm.) diam., 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm.) wide across handles

Provenance

Collection of Liu Xihai (1793-1853).
Collection of Pan Zuyin (1830-1890).
Frank Caro (successor to C. T. Loo), New York.
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections.
Else Sackler (1913-2000) Collection, and thence by descent within the family.

Literature

Wu Shifen, Meigulu jinwen (The Records of Pursuing Antiquity: Archaic Bronze Inscriptions), 1895, vol. 2.1, p. 23 (inscription only).
Liu Xihai, Changan huogu bian (The Records of Acquiring Antiquities in Changan), 1905, vol. 1, p. 16.
Pan Zuyin, Pangulou yiqi kuanzhi (Ritual Bronze Inscriptions Compiled at the Pangulou Studio), 1872, vol. 1, p. 26.
Wu Dacheng, Kezhai jigulu (The Records of Collecting Antiques by Kezhai 「Wu Dacheng」), 1896, vol. 12, p. 3 (inscription only).
Zhu Shanqi, Jingwuxinshi yiqi kuanzhi (Ritual Bronze Inscriptions Compiled at the Jingwuxinshi Studio), 1908, vol. 2, p. 37 (inscription only).
Sheng Yu, Yuhuage jinwen, (Archaic Bronze Inscriptions in the Yuhuage Studio), manuscript in the Beijing University Library, p. 172 (inscription only).
Luo Zhenyu, Yinwencun (Surviving Writings from the Yin Dynasty), 1917, vol. 1, p. 18 (inscription only).
Luo Zhenyu, Sandai jijin wencun (Surviving Writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties), 1937, vol. 6, p. 39 (inscription only).
Liu Tizhi, Xiaojiaojinge jinwen taben (Rubbings of Archaic Bronze Inscriptions at the Xiaojiaojingge Studio), 1935, vol. 7, p. 71 (inscription only).
Ma Xulun, Du jinqi keci (Readings of Bronze Inscriptions), Beijing, 1962, p. 122 (inscription only).
R. Poor, Bronze Ritual Vessels of Ancient China (Slide Lectures), Intercultural Arts Press, New York, 1968.
Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), 1977, A174, R97.
Zhou Fagao et al., Sandai jijin wencun zhulubiao (Tabulation of the Publications of Bronzes in Sandai jijin wencun), Taipei, 1977, no. 447 (inscription only).
Noel Barnard and Cheung Kwong-Yue, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American, and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, no. 599 (inscription only).
Zhou Fagao, Sandai jijin wencun bu (Supplements to the Surviving Writings from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties), Taipei, 1980, no. 97 (inscription only).
Yan Yiping, Jinwen Zongji (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions), Taipei, 1983, no. 2280 (inscription only).
Minao Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels), vol. 1 (plates), Tokyo, 1984, pl. 109, gui no. 244.
Yinzhou jinwen jicheng (Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 1984, no. 3655 (inscription only).
Wu Zhenfeng, Shaanxi jinwen huibian (Corpus of Bronze Inscriptions from Shaanxi Province), Xian, 1989, vol. 2, p. 139 (inscription only).
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 390-5, no. 45.
Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 9, p. 266, no. 4511.

Lot Essay

The inscription may be translated as "Kang from Ya Gao clan made this ritual vessel for father Gui."
Two similar, but larger gui (20.6 cm. diam. of mouth), have been illustrated in articles reprinted in Chinese Bronzes: Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong. One that is also cast with an inscription in the bottom of the interior, in the Klingenberg Collection in the Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin, is illustrated by H. Butz, 'Early Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Museum of East Asian Art', p. 382 (fig. 10) and a rubbing (fig. 10a). The diamond-and-boss band is very similar, as is the upper band, although it is missing the relief animal heads on either side. The other, in the Seattle Art Museum, is illustrated by M. Knight, "Bronze in Chinese Culture from the Shang to the Tang Dynasty', p. 207 (fig. 5). The upper decorative band and the band encircling the foot are the same on the Seattle and the present gui, but the main diamond-and-boss band on the Seattle gui is wider, with five rows of bosses as opposed to the three rows of the present and the Museum of East Asian Art gui.

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