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Lot Essay
Acquired by the present owner in December 1969.
Cf. a very similar gui illustrated by Shen Zhiyu (ed), The Shanghai Museum, USA, 1983, pl. 83, where the two one-hundred and seventeen character pictograph are illustrated. The long text on the Shanghai Museum bronze recorded that the vessel was cast to mark a victory during the reign of King Xuan of the Western Zhou. Another closely related bronze of this period in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated by J. Keith Wilson, 'The Stylus and the Brush: Stylistic Change in Late Anyang and Early Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions', Chinese Bronzes - Selected articles from Orientations, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 367, fig. 18; where the author purported that this different style of inscription was subsequently labelled as da zhuan, or 'greater seal script', which bore a heavy influence on later period calligraphy, ibid., p. 368. Other related examples include the gui illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur Sackler Collections, vol. II B, pl. 57. Also for line drawings of covered gui vessels found at Fufeng Shaochencun, Shaanxi province, illustrated ibid., fig. 143b.
A less ornate gui was included in the 1990 Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition catalogue Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, no. 32, where the authors, Rawson and Bunker, explain that identical gui were used to indicate status during the late Western Zhou. The forms varied little to be easily recognized as belonging to a person of a certain rank, even by those with little experience of ritual. Although there are a number of published examples of this form, the present lot is among the most striking for its detailed and crisp casting.
It is interesting to note the unusual bird motif cast on the cover of the present gui, and the same motif is found on the cover belonging to a Zhou dynasty bronze zun from the Hosokawa Goryu collection, illustrated by Yuzo Sugimura, Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, and Jades in Japanese Collections, Honolulu, pl. 34.
Cf. a very similar gui illustrated by Shen Zhiyu (ed), The Shanghai Museum, USA, 1983, pl. 83, where the two one-hundred and seventeen character pictograph are illustrated. The long text on the Shanghai Museum bronze recorded that the vessel was cast to mark a victory during the reign of King Xuan of the Western Zhou. Another closely related bronze of this period in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated by J. Keith Wilson, 'The Stylus and the Brush: Stylistic Change in Late Anyang and Early Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions', Chinese Bronzes - Selected articles from Orientations, Hong Kong, 2001, p. 367, fig. 18; where the author purported that this different style of inscription was subsequently labelled as da zhuan, or 'greater seal script', which bore a heavy influence on later period calligraphy, ibid., p. 368. Other related examples include the gui illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur Sackler Collections, vol. II B, pl. 57. Also for line drawings of covered gui vessels found at Fufeng Shaochencun, Shaanxi province, illustrated ibid., fig. 143b.
A less ornate gui was included in the 1990 Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition catalogue Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, no. 32, where the authors, Rawson and Bunker, explain that identical gui were used to indicate status during the late Western Zhou. The forms varied little to be easily recognized as belonging to a person of a certain rank, even by those with little experience of ritual. Although there are a number of published examples of this form, the present lot is among the most striking for its detailed and crisp casting.
It is interesting to note the unusual bird motif cast on the cover of the present gui, and the same motif is found on the cover belonging to a Zhou dynasty bronze zun from the Hosokawa Goryu collection, illustrated by Yuzo Sugimura, Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, and Jades in Japanese Collections, Honolulu, pl. 34.