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Lot Essay
The inscription on the interior of this gui is comprised of a composite clan sign and two characters, fu ding (father ding). The same inscription can be found on a ding vessel included in Yinzhou jinwen jicheng (Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 1984, no. 1861. However, no image of this ding appears to have been published.
An early Western Zhou gui of similar form and decoration is illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 8, p. 314, no. 4037. Most other similar examples feature a band of flower-like motifs alternating with whorl bosses around the foot, including a famous late Shang gui with a lengthy inscription dated to the 20th year of the reign of one of the last two Shang kings, illustrated by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 416-20, no. 74; another late Shang example formerly in the collection of C.T. Loo & Co., is illustrated by Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), 2 vols., Tokyo, 1977, no. A197; and an early Western Zhou example excavated from Hejia village, Qishan county, Shaanxi province, illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., p. 122, no. 3811.
An early Western Zhou gui of similar form and decoration is illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 8, p. 314, no. 4037. Most other similar examples feature a band of flower-like motifs alternating with whorl bosses around the foot, including a famous late Shang gui with a lengthy inscription dated to the 20th year of the reign of one of the last two Shang kings, illustrated by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 416-20, no. 74; another late Shang example formerly in the collection of C.T. Loo & Co., is illustrated by Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), 2 vols., Tokyo, 1977, no. A197; and an early Western Zhou example excavated from Hejia village, Qishan county, Shaanxi province, illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., p. 122, no. 3811.