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

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
An eight-character inscription on the interior reads Shu Xiang zuo Fu Gui bao zun yi (Shu Xiang made this precious sacrificial vessel for Father Gui).
11 1⁄8 in. (28.4 cm.) across handles

Provenance

J. T. Tai & Co., New York, 1965.
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections, New York.
Acquired from the above in 2000.

Literature

Liu Tizhi, Xiaojiao jingge jinwen taben (Rubbings of Archaic Bronze Inscriptions at the Xiaojiaojingge Studio), 1935, vol. 5, p. 26, no. 5.
J.C. Ferguson, Lidai zhulu jijin mu (Bronze Inscriptions from Previous Publications), wine vessel, container, zun, Beijing, 1938, p. 104.
N. Barnard and Cheung Kwong-Yue, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American, and Australasian Collections, Taipei, 1978, no. 543.
M. Hayashi, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (In Shu seidoki soran ichi) (Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronzes), Tokyo, 1984, vol. 2, pl. 88, gui no. 59.
R. Poor, Bronze Ritual Vessels of Ancient China (Slide Lectures), New York, 1968.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Washington, D. C., 1990, pp. 350-51, no. 35.

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Lot Essay

The rubbing of the current gui’s inscription illustrated in Liu Tizhi’s 1935 publication Xiaojiao jingge jinwen taben (Rubbings of Archaic Bronze Inscriptions at the Xiaojiaojingge Studio), is accompanied by a hand-written note stating the rubbing was produced by an acquaintance of Wu Jiangweng in the binwu year of the Daoguang period, corresponding to 1846, followed by a personal seal probably reading Zhang Kamu.

The cicadas, finely cast in intaglio line under the handles, is an unusual feature of this gui. In her discussion of the current gui in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge, 1990, pp. 350-1, no. 35, J. Rawson notes, “whereas the form and disposition of the motifs are Shang in origin, the smooth roundness of the relief is a Zhou characteristic.” Similar rounded relief can be seen on the gui illustrated ibid., pp. 352-3, no. 36, and on the De gui in the Winthrop Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, illustrated p. 354, fig. 36.1.

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