Page 20 - Fine Chinese Art Christies London May 2018

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
*39
A BRONZE TWIN-HANDLED VESSEL, GUI
LATE SHANG -WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (12TH-8TH CENTURY BC) 晚商/西周早期 青銅饕餮紋簋
Each side of the body is elaborately cast with a bold taotie mask design,
separated by a protruding animal head above a thin vertical fange. The
spreading foot is decorated with a band of stylised mythical beasts. There is 銘文: 「 亞 XX」
a pair animal-form handles, each with hooked pendant tail underneath. The
interior of the body is cast with a graph, likely to be a clan emblem. The bronze 器內底鑄一亞形族氏銘文, 繪一四足瑞獸奔騰於海水紋
has a dark brownish-green patina. 上. 三個類似銘文可見1938年出版的《金文編附錄上》, 第
10¡ in. (26.4 cm.) diam. across the handles
1070頁, 第170號, 其中一圖與此簋銘文尤為接近。
£30,000-50,000 $43,000-70,000
€35,000-57,000 參考Sackler收藏中一件形制及紋飾極其相似的西周簋,

收錄於Rawson編著的《Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from
PROVENANCE the Arthur M. Sackler Collections》, 第二冊B, 第356-357
The collection of Felix Guggenheim (1904-1976), Beverly Hills, California.
With Rare Art, Inc., New York, before 14 January 1981. 頁, 此件西周簋較本拍品口徑略大出2釐米, 極有可能出自
From an important private European collection. 同一套。
LITERATURE 另一類似例子存於美國華盛頓Freer Gallery of Art, 見
G. Kuwayama, Ancient Ritual Bronzes of China, Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, 1976, pp.46-47, no. 26. Smithsonian Institution於1967年出版的《The Freer
Chinese Bronzes》, 第一冊, 圖版64號, 第358-363頁。 陝西
The inscription in the interior consists of an animal silhouette enclosed by
the cruciform character ya, together composing a graph which can be read 省歷史博物館亦藏一例西周簋, 賀家村出土, 收錄於1994
as a clan emblem or insignia. The animal silhouette enclosed within appears 年出版的《陝西青銅器》, 第93頁。
to be a reptile or sea-creature amongst waves.
Three graphs that may be simplifed versions of the present graph are 來源:
illustrated in Jinwen bianfulu (shang), 1938, p. 1070, no. 170, comprising 美國加州貝弗利希爾斯重要藏家Felix Guggenheim (1904-
similar dragon-like components.
1976)私人舊藏
Compare with an early Western Zhou gui in the Sackler Collection with
almost identical proportions and decoration, illustrated by J. Rawson 於1981年1月14日前購自美國紐約古董商Rare Art，Inc.
in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, 重要歐洲私人珍藏
Washington D.C, 1990, vol. IIB, pp. 356-357. The bold taotie mask is centred
on a fange surmounted by an animal head in relief, and animal-form handles 著錄:
with hooked pendants extending from the bottom are remarkably similar in G. Kuwayama著《Ancient Ritual Bronzes of China》，1976
both vessels. The Sackler gui, being 2 cm. wider in diameter, perhaps came
from the same set of diferently sized ritual vessels. 年，美國洛杉磯藝術博物館出版，第46-47頁，編號26
A gui of comparable form and style can be found in the Freer Gallery of Art,
illustrated by John A. Pope and Rutherford J. Gettens in The Freer Chinese
Bronzes, Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1967, vol. I, pl. 64, pp. 358-
363. This example shares the same animal-form handles and prominent
taotie design centred on a pronounced central fange on the main body of the
vessel. Another example found in the Shaanxi History Museum collection
is a gui excavated from the Western Zhou site Hejia. Despite considerable
encrustation, there are clear similarities in vessel form and large taotie scroll
design of the main body, which is surmounted by an animal head in the top
narrow register (The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi’an, 1994, p. 930.)

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18 Other fees apply in addition to the hammer price – see Section D of our Conditions of Sale at the back of this Catalogue