Lot Essay
The pictogram may be translated, 'Bo (made) this precious vessel'
Compare the very similar vessel from the Lundgren Collection, exhibited in Venice, 1954, Catalogue, no. 49; another one, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated by Umehara in Shina Kodo Seikwa; a zun in the British Museum is illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Ancient China, pl. 84. Compare, also, the vessel dated to the early Western Zhou, excavated from Shandong, illustrated in Wenwu 1972:5, pl. 7, fig. 1
A zun cast with a similar band of gui bird design incorporating taotie masks, but with the addition of a bowstring band below, is illustrated in Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu, vol. 12, (Yin, Zhou and Warring States), Japan, 1962, no. 47. Similar gui birds can been seen in rubbings from other types of vessels illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies of Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 171 (102) and p. 267 (8-142) and another is published by B. Kalgren, "Some Characteristics of the Yin Art", B.M.F.E.A., no. 34, pl. 6b
Compare the very similar vessel from the Lundgren Collection, exhibited in Venice, 1954, Catalogue, no. 49; another one, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated by Umehara in Shina Kodo Seikwa; a zun in the British Museum is illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Ancient China, pl. 84. Compare, also, the vessel dated to the early Western Zhou, excavated from Shandong, illustrated in Wenwu 1972:5, pl. 7, fig. 1
A zun cast with a similar band of gui bird design incorporating taotie masks, but with the addition of a bowstring band below, is illustrated in Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu, vol. 12, (Yin, Zhou and Warring States), Japan, 1962, no. 47. Similar gui birds can been seen in rubbings from other types of vessels illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies of Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 171 (102) and p. 267 (8-142) and another is published by B. Kalgren, "Some Characteristics of the Yin Art", B.M.F.E.A., no. 34, pl. 6b