LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The trumpet-shaped neck is finely cast with four scroll-filled blades, the center section with two taotie masks divided and separated by hooked flanges repeated on the spreading foot which is cast with four matching quadrants of downward-facing dragons. The interior of the foot is cast in relief with a two-character inscription. The vessel has a dark grey patina and extensive malachite encrustation.
9¾ in. (24.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Sotheby's London, 10 June 1986, lot 44.

Literature

Wang Tao and Liu Yu, A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby's and Christie's Sales, Shanghai, 2007, no. 233.

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Lot Essay

In A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby's and Christie's Sales, Shanghai, 2007, no. 233, Wang Tao and Liu Yu cite the unusual inscription cast in relief inside the foot as reading X (personal name) Lei X (personal name).

Unlike the taotie masks more usually found on the foot, the present gu has four quadrants with the repeated decoration of a downward-facing dragon. Similar decoration can be seen on three bronze gu dated to the 13th century BC illustrated by Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 216-25, nos. 25-27, with a rubbing on p. 225.

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