Page 9 - Christies IMportant Chinese Art Sept 26 2020 NYC

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE ASIAN
COLLECTION
1501
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC
The mid-section and foot are finely cast with bands of
taotie masks on a leiwen ground, those on the foot below
a band of dragons, all divided and separated by narrow
notched flanges. The trumpet neck is cast with leiwen-
filled blades above a band of serpents.
12 in. (30.8 cm.) high

$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired in Hong Kong, 1992.

商晚期 青銅饕餮紋觚

By the twelfth century BC, the shape of gu had
become more attenuated, which was accentuated
by the straight profile of the lengthened mid-section.
This can be seen in the present gu, as well as others
of twelfth-century date that are cast with decoration
similar to that of the present gu, such as the example
of comparable height (30.8 cm. high) illustrated by
Steven D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in
the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1997, pp. 60-61, no. 9.
Two other similar gu have also been published: one
(33.5 cm. high) is illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren
in "Bronzes in the Hellström Collection," BMFEA,
No. 20, Stockholm, 1948, Pl. 14 (1); the other (30.5
cm. high) by Bernhard Karlgren and Jan Wirgin in
Chinese Bronzes: The Natanael Wessén Collection,
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquites, Monograph
Series, vol. 1, Stockholm, 1969, col. pl. 4, pls. 21-23,
no. 15, which was later sold at Christie's New York,
22 March 2019, lot 1510.

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