LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The body, of slightly bellied profile, is raised on a tall foot encircled by a narrow band of angular scrolls set between ring borders which is repeated on the neck above a wide band of diamond and boss pattern. There is a small animal mask cast in relief on each side below the flared rim, and there is a pair of scroll-decorated loop handles that issue from bovine masks. There is a two-character pictograph cast in the base of the interior. The base is unusually cast in relief with a whorl motif, and there is a two-character pictograph cast in the base of the interior. The bronze has a mottled grey and milky green patina and some malachite encrustation.
9 in. (23 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong, 14 January 1998.

Brought to you by

Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

One character of the pictograph is a bird standing in profile with a crest on its head. The character may be a clan name, and is the bronze script form of the character yuan, which is a type of bird. The second character may be read as the character zhu.

Compare the similar gui illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC/Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 390-1, no. 45, and another similar example sold in these rooms, 19 September 2006, lot 148.

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