EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A VERY RARE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL AND COVER, GUI
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
Raised on a tall, splayed pedestal foot cast around the sides with four taotie masks framed by the pendent blades of the long handles which issue from bovine masks with pronounced horns and interrupt a band of alternating whorls and descending dragons beneath the everted rim, the design repeated on the domed cover between bow-string bands beneath the flared finial, the interior of the vessel and cover cast with a seven-character inscription
9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong in 1991.
The Tsui Museum of Art.

Exhibited

Gems of Chinese Art: Selections of Ceramics and Bronzes from the Tsui Art Foundation, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1992-95, no. 4.

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Lot Essay

The inscription in the vessel reads Bao zun yi X zuo Fu yi, which may be translated as 'X had this ritual vessel cast for Father Yi'. The same inscription is repeated on the inside of the cover. However, the two columns of characters are reversed and some characters are inverted.

A very similar four-handled gui dated early Western Zhou, of approximately the same size, but lacking a cover, is illustrated by R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C. and Cambridge, 1987, p. 416, no. 52. The author illustrates several other comparable examples, including one from Jiangsu Dantu Yandunshan, p. 419, fig. 52.3; one in the Shanghai Museum, p. 419, fig. 52.4; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, p. 420, fig. 52.5; and a further similar example in the Shanghai Museum, which is raised on an integral tall square base, p. 422, fig. 52.7.

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