LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The trumpet-shaped neck of the slender vessel is crisply cast in low relief with four blades filled with leiwen rising from a band of angular snakes. Both the center section and the spreading pedestal foot are decorated with two taotie masks, those on the foot below a band of dragons, and all are divided and separated by notched flanges. There is a three-character inscription cast inside the foot. The bronze has acquired a mottled milky green patina and has some areas of malachite encrustation.
12 3/8 in. (31.5 cm.), wood stand, Japanese wood box

Provenance

Private collection, Japan, acquired in the late 19th/early 20th century.

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Lot Essay

The three-character inscription cast inside the foot reads, Zi [] ce, which may be literally translated, "Son [] to appoint."

Gu were one of the most important vessels used in Shang ritual practices, attested to by the inclusion of fifty-three in the tomb of Fu Hao. A similar gu of comparable size (31.5 cm. high) in the van der Mandele Collection is illustrated by H.F.E. Visser, Asiatic Art, New York/Amsterdam, 1948, pl. 5, no. 6; and another (30.5 cm. high) is illustrated by B. Karlgren and J. Wirgin, Chinese Bronzes: The Natanael Wessen Collection, Stockholm, 1969, no. 15.

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