Christie’s is pleased to offer the following ancient bronzes from the collection of Anna Charlotte Rice Cooke (1853-1934). Mrs. Cooke was born into a prominent missionary family in Hawaii, where she spent the majority of her life. She and her husband, Charles Montague Cooke, were well known amongst the societal elite in Hawaii, and were eventually responsible for the establishment of the Honolulu Academy of the Arts, now called the Honolulu Museum of Art. In the early 1880s, the Cookes built their family home on Beretania Street, which would later become the present-day location for the Museum. Mrs. Cooke was a sophisticated art collector and patron, and as the years passed, the size of the Cooke family collection rapidly grew. Mrs. Cooke, along with the help of fellow art patrons, began the task of cataloguing the collection with the goal of eventually having it displayed for the benefit of the public. In 1924, with Mrs. Cooke’s assistance, Frank Montague was hired as the first director of the Academy, and the museum opened to the public in 1927. The Beretania Street home, along with a substantial grant and portion of their art collection, was given as a gift, and put on display for the people of Hawaii. While the original Cooke home was razed shortly thereafter in favor of the new Museum building, to this day, a number of items from the Cooke family collection can be seen on view in the galleries. THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU

SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
SHANG DYNASTY, 13TH-12TH CENTURY BC
The trumpet-shaped neck is flat-cast with four upright blades rising from a band of four snakes, and the middle section and spreading foot with taotie masks divided and separated by narrow notched flanges, those on the foot below pairs of confronted birds, all on a leiwen ground and filled with leiwen. A single graph is cast on the interior of the foot. The bronze has a mottled green patina.
11 5/8 in. (30 cm.) high

Provenance

Anna Charlotte Rice Cooke (1853-1934) Collection, Hawaii, prior to 1934, and thence by decent within the family.

Brought to you by

Nick Wilson

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Lot Essay

The graph on the interior of the foot shows a human figure in profile, with prominent foot and hand reaching towards an implement, possibly a baton. The figure in profile may represent fu (father), and the implement he reaches for may identify his family name.

This gu is associated with the 'mature' style of gu from Anyang (late 13th to early 12th century BC), which all exhibit the same distinctive structure and the same decorative sequence of motifs. Compare the similar gu from the Sze Yuan Tang Archaic Bronzes, and formerly in The Mount Trust Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2010, lot 803.

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