EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Gui of this type, which were used to hold offerings of grain, were popular during the early Western Zhou period. They typically feature a broad register comprising two taotie masks above a narrower register of dragons, snakes or birds that encircles the foot above the bevel, which is sometimes repeated in a narrow register below the rim of the vessel. The handles of these gui are usually surmounted by animal heads with either blunt horns or prominent C-shaped horns that lay flat against the side of the head, such as those seen on the current vessel. The sides of the handles are cast with simplified curved wings, while claws and hooked tails are cast on the pendent tabs below.

A very similar gui dated to the early Western Zhou dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Catalogue to the Special Exhibition of Grain Vessels of the Shang and Chou Dynasties, Taipei, 1985, p. 241, pl. 35, where other related gui are also illustrated, p. 235, pl. 32, and pp. 243-45, pls. 36 and 37. Another similar gui is illustrated by Jung Keng in Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies, Monograph Series No. 17, The Bronzes of Shang and Chou, vol. II, 1941, pl. 112, no. 203. Compare, also, the gui of very similar proportions and with similar cast decoration, but raised on an integral square pedestal, illustrated by S.D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, 1997, pp. 109-10, no. 27, where it is dated late 11th-early 10th century BC.