A BRONZE FOOD VESSEL, GUI

SHANG/WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

A BRONZE FOOD VESSEL, GUI
Shang/Western Zhou Dynasty
The slightly bulging sides cast with a wide band of raised bosses, each within a diamond with incised line decoration, below a band of chi dragons reserved on a leiwen ground and centered on each side by a small animal mask, the loop handles surmounted by animal masks, all raised upon a flaring foot ring with a conforming chi dragon band, the interior with a six-character inscription, extensive green encrustation
8in. (20.2cm.) across handles

Further details

See illustration and detail

Lot Essay

For two similar vessels, one dated to the Shang Dynasty, the other to late Shang or early Western Zhou, see Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, 1990, p. 378, fig. 41.2, said to have been found at Anyang; and fig. 41.1, from the vicinity of the Gan Me, Shaanxi Liquan Xian, after Wenwu ziliao congkan, 1980:3, pp. 28-31, pl. 4:2. Another, from the Madame Wannieck Collection, Paris, was exhibited in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, Catalogue, no. 214, p. 20