A Bronze Tripod Food Vessel and Cover, Gui

MIDDLE ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH-8TH CENTURY BC

Details

A Bronze Tripod Food Vessel and Cover, Gui
Middle Zhou dynasty, 9th-8th century BC
The body horizontally grooved below a band of dissolved dragons confronted on abstract taotie masks repeated on the cover below a shallow groove encircling the round collared finial pierced on two sides and acting as a pedestal foot when the cover is inverted, with a pair of animal-head handles with coiled horns suspending loose rings flanking the incurved rim, raised on three paw supports issuing from animal heads that join the supports to the ring foot, the mottled patina of yellowish-green color
11in. (28cm.) across handles
Falk Collection no. 525.

Provenance

Plaut, a German dealer, 1937, during the Falks' first trip to Peking.

Literature

K. Linduff, Tradition, Phase and Style of Shang and Chou Bronze Vessels , New York and London, 1979, pl. 21.

Exhibited

Neolithic to Ming, Chinese Objects - The Myron S. Falk Collection, Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, 1957, no. 6.
Arts of the Chou Dynasty, Palo Alto, California, Stanford University Museum, 1958, no. 43.
Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, New York, Asia House Gallery, The Asia Society, 1968, no. 60.
Ancient Chinese Bronzes, New York, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, 1991, no. 19.

Lot Essay

Compare the present piece to a gui of this type in the Sackler Collections illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, Washington DC, 1990, vol. IIB, no. 56, and an excavated example, the Wang Chen gui from Shaanxi, Chengcheng Xian, dated Middle to late Western Zhou, fig. 56.7, which has the same profile and handles, but a ribbed rather than grooved body. The Sackler example, dated to late Western Zhou, has a similarly grooved body and decorative bands on the body, cover and ring base, but the handles are of C-scroll form issuing from animal masks with short snouts, projecting tusks, and flat ears, mirroring the ears of the taotie masks around the foot ring. Compare, also, a gui of similar proportions and with fluted sides, but without the grooved scrolls and eyes on the base and cover, in Important Inscribed Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels from the Li Yingshuan Collection, The Shanghai Museum, 1996, p. 81. no. 32.

More from THE FALK COLLECTION I: FINE CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART

View All