Page 25 - Christie's Chinese Works of Art March 24 and 25th, 2022 NYC

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION
717
顯赫美國珍藏
A VERY FINELY CAST BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC 晚商 公元前十一世紀 青銅受父辛且己簋
The vessel is raised on a tall foot encircled by a band comprised of kui dragons
銘文: 受父辛且己
centered on narrow flanges. The body is decorated with a diamond-and-boss
pattern below a band with panels of diamond frets centered on two sides by
來源:
a small animal mask cast in relief and interrupted on the other two sides by a
pair of handles issuing from bovine masks. The inscription cast on the interior 趙氏山海樓, 香港, 1988年前
of the vessel consists of a graph, shou followed by Fu Xin, Zu Ji (Father Xin, Michael Goedhuis Ltd., 倫敦, 1998年
Grandfather Ji). The patina is of mottled greyish-green color.
出版:
11¿ in. (28.1 cm.) wide across handles, cloth box
巴納及張光裕, 《中日歐美澳紐所見所拓所摹金文彙編》, 臺北, 1978年, 卷7,
編號1387
$200,000-300,000
羅森, 《趙氏山海樓所藏古代青銅器》, 香港, 1988年, 頁62, 編號19
PROVENANCE:
Bella and P. P. Chiu Collection, Hong Kong, by 1988.
Michael Goedhuis Ltd., London, 1998.
LITERATURE:
N. Barnard and Cheung Kwong-yue, Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze
Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American and Australasian
Collections, Taipei, 1978, Vol. 7, no. 1387.
J. Rawson, The Bella and P.P. Chiu Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong
Kong, 1988, p. 62, no. 19.

This superbly cast gui with attractive pale greenish-grey patina compares Chen Jieqi (1813-1884), and said to have been found in Shaanxi Qishan Xian,
closely with a gui with similar handles and similar decoration of pointed is illustrated by S. Umehara in Kankaro kikkin-zu, Kyoto, 1947, no. 1.17.
bosses set within a diamond-shaped grid, from the vicinity of the Gan He,
Shaanxi Liquan Xian, illustrated in Wenwu ziliao congkan 3, 1980, pp. 28-31, In the entry for the present gui in The Bella and P. P. Chiu Collection of
pl. 4:2, and again by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1988, p. 62, J. Rawson notes, “As with
Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, the handles on the present gui, the handles on these Shang vessels often
Washington, D.C., 1990, p. 478, fig. 41.1. Also illustrated, p. 378, fig. 41.2, is carry rather flat heads. In the early Zhou period, by contrast, comparable
another similar gui, but with more rounded bosses, which was said to have gui bore handles crowned by animal heads with horns flattened against the
been found at Anyang. Another comparable gui, formerly in the collection of sides, rather than against the tops of the handles…”

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