LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC

Details

A SMALL BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, MU NING RI XIN GUI
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is raised on a tall spreading foot decorated with two pairs of confronted kui dragons. The body is decorated on each side with a taotie mask centered on a low flange, below a band of kui dragons confronted on an animal mask cast in high relief, all reserved on a leiwen ground. A four-character inscription, mu ning ri xin, is cast in the bottom of the interior. The surface has a greenish patina with malachite encrustation overall.
5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm.) high

Provenance

The Mengdiexuan Collection, Hong Kong, acquired prior to 1990.

Literature

J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 116, no. 29 (part).

Exhibited

Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, 12 October - 2 December 1990.
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth, 18 January 2002-30 August 2006.
Hong Kong, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, The First Dragon of China: Hong Kong's Dragon Culture, 10 February 2012-27 January 2013.

Lot Essay

For a discussion of the Mu Ning Ri Xin group of bronzes see the note to lot 908.

An almost identical gui vessel bearing the same inscription in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, which is likely the companion to the present gui, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 17.

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