Lot 1220
1220
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The trumpet-shaped neck is cast with four blades rising from a band of cicadas. Both middle section and the spreading foot are cast with two taotie masks divided and separated by narrow notched flanges, those on the foot below a band of pairs of confronted dragons. The decoration is reserved on leiwen grounds. There is a single character, nan, cast inside the foot. The bronze has a milky green patina and areas of malachite encrustation.
11¾ in. (29.8 cm.) high
Provenance
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 16 November 1973, lot 11.
Private Collection from Hawaii; Christie's New York, 20 March 1997, lot 178.
Literature
Wang Tao and Liu Yu, A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby's and Christie's Sales, Shanghai, 2007, no. 207.

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Lot Essay

A comparable gu is illustrated in Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., 1987, no. 100. See, also, the gu illustrated by W.T. Chase in Ancient Chinese Bronze Art, China House Gallery, New York, 1991, no. 9; and another by M. Loehr in Relics of Ancient China, The Asia Society, 1965, p. 41, no. 11.

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