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Lot Essay
Acquired by the present owner in December 1971.
The inscription reads: Zhen zuo fugui zun yi, 'Made by royal commission (this) fugui vessel'.
A closely related vessel with a lid is illustrated by B. Karlgren, B.M.F.E.A., 'Marginalia on some Bronze Albums, II', Stockholm, 1960, no. 32. Related bronze examples are published, cast with similar prominent pointed eyebrows above the taotie mask described as 'horns of an ox' by Chen Peifen, 'Animal Mask Designs on Shang and Zhou Bronzes', Chinese Bronzes - Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 147. The first example, a bronze Gufuji you from the Shanghai Museum is illustrated by Chen Peifen, ibid., fig. 7; and a bronze you from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, dated to the early Western Zhou period, illustrated by W. Watson, Art of Dynastic China, Thames and Hudson, 1981, p. 68, no. 23. Compare another bronze you from C. T. Loo, Paris, illustrated by B. Karlgren, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 1937, no. 509.
The inscription reads: Zhen zuo fugui zun yi, 'Made by royal commission (this) fugui vessel'.
A closely related vessel with a lid is illustrated by B. Karlgren, B.M.F.E.A., 'Marginalia on some Bronze Albums, II', Stockholm, 1960, no. 32. Related bronze examples are published, cast with similar prominent pointed eyebrows above the taotie mask described as 'horns of an ox' by Chen Peifen, 'Animal Mask Designs on Shang and Zhou Bronzes', Chinese Bronzes - Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 147. The first example, a bronze Gufuji you from the Shanghai Museum is illustrated by Chen Peifen, ibid., fig. 7; and a bronze you from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, dated to the early Western Zhou period, illustrated by W. Watson, Art of Dynastic China, Thames and Hudson, 1981, p. 68, no. 23. Compare another bronze you from C. T. Loo, Paris, illustrated by B. Karlgren, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 1937, no. 509.