LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
Of slender profile, the trumpet-shaped neck flat-cast with four upright blades outlined and filled with leiwen rising from a scroll band, the center section with two taotie masks with small rounded eyes centered and separated by notched flanges repeated on the similarly decorated spreading foot, with a clan sign, Xing, cast inside the foot, with mottled, milky olive-green patina and areas of malachite encrustation
9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) high

Provenance

Martin Fischer, Shanghai, 1938.
Sotheby's, London, 18 May 2008, lot 526.

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Lot Essay

An identical inscription is found on a jia dated to the Late Shang dynasty, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, illustrated by Wang Tao and Liu Yu in A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby's and Christie's, Shanghai, 2007, no. 311.

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