Page 449 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

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An archaic bronze wine vessel, gu Three archaic bronze halberds
Late Shang/early Western Zhou Dynasty Late Shang/early Western Zhou Dynasty
With hollow flaring foot, the mid-section cast with two mask-like motifs Comprising one cast with an intaglio design of a stylised bird on each
formed of scrolls around two pairs of eye-like bosses, all beneath the side of the handle, one with a reticulated panel with a scrolling mythical
neck flaring out to a broad circular rim. beast on the handle and an animal-head boss on each side where the
20.6cm (8 1/8in) high handle joins the blade, the third with a taotie mask half on one side and
£6,000 - 8,000 half on the other side of the blade.
HK$71,000 - 94,000 CNY56,000 - 75,000 The longest 16.8cm (10¼in) long (3).
£10,000 - 15,000
商晚期/西周早期 青銅獸紋觚 HK$120,000 - 180,000 CNY94,000 - 140,000

Compare a zun with similar decoration in the Ashmolean Museum, 商晚期/西周早期 青銅戟三件
dated to the early Western Zhou and with an inscription, illustrated by
J.Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M.Sackler
Collections, Vol.IIB, Harvard, 1990, p.547, fig.78.2.

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