A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, GU

EARLY BRONZES AND METALWORK

Details

A WELL-CAST ARCHAIC BRONZE WINE VESSEL, GU
SHANG DYNASTY

The slender beaker-form vessel with tall trumpet neck decorated with four slender blades cast in low relief with parallel hooked lines enclosing leiwen, above a band of cicadas, the central boss with taotie masks with raised eyes and C-shaped horns divided by shallow flanges above two cruciform apertures, the spreading foot with further taotie masks in graduated relief on a delicately drawn ground below beaked dragons, the yellowish-green patina with large areas of malachite encrustation on the neck and inside the mouth, pictogram inside the foot
11 5/8in. (29.5cm.) high

Lot Essay

A comparable gu is illustrated in Asian Art in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., 1987, no. 100. Another was included by W. Thomas Chase in the exhibition Ancient Chinese Bronze Art, China House Gallery, 1991, Catalogue, no. 9; and by Max Loehr in Relics of Ancient China, The Asia Society, 1965, p. 41, no. 11