SECOND HALF OF MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH CENTURY BC

Details

AN ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
SECOND HALF OF MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 9TH CENTURY BC
The swelling body is cast in relief on each side with a small taotie mask flanked by pairs of birds with backward-turned heads and long tails and crests, above a bow-string band, with a pair of loop handles cast at the top with a horned mask, along the sides with intaglio scrolls and at the bottom with a pendent tab, raised on a spreading foot encircled by a band of overlapping scales representing feathers, with an all-over pale milky-green patina.
11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm.) across handles

Provenance

J.T. Tai & Co., New York, 1965
Arthur M. Sackler
Sold at Christie's New York, 18 March 2009, lot 208

Literature

R. Poor, Bronze Ritual Vessels of Ancient China, New York, 1968.
J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, pp. 434-7, no. 55.

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Lot Essay

Compare the gui with similar decorative band cast below the mouth rim and with similar handles, but with a different band around the foot illustrated by B. Karlgren, 'Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 31, Stockholm, 1959, pl. 26 b.

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