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PROPERTY FROM A SAN FRANCISCO PRIVATE PROVENANCE sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September
COLLECTION 1995, lot 294. A nearly identical vessel to the
Japanese Private Collection.
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL Sotheby’s London, 18th November 1998, lot 875. present example from the Karlbeck Collection
(GU) The present vessel features a decorative restraint is illustrated in Osvald Siren, Kinas Konst Under
Tre Artusenden, vol. I, Stockholm, 1942, col. pl.
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH / and distinctive rendering of taotie with well opposite p. 38. See also a vessel of the same
11TH CENTURY BC de" ned, disconnected elements cast in relief; the form and decoration sold in our London rooms,
horns over brows and oval protruding eyes set 6th April 1976, lot 4.
the slender waisted form rising from a splayed to to either side of the raised bridge of the nose
foot to a ! aring mouth, the slightly bulbous leading to the grimacing mouth, set with fangs $ 20,000-30,000
midsection cast with two dissembled taotie against a plain ground. This unusual format is
masks set between bands of double bowstrings, shared by other bronzes attributed to the late ਠ͋ ʮʩۃɤɚ ɤɓ˰ߏ ڡზᛧᕡ७⋧
above a narrow band of striding kui dragons and Shang dynasty. A zun with related characteristics
a further pair of abstracted taotie, the interior of is illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual თ˖j
the foot with three pictograms, zi grandfather gui, Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, ɿख़ު
the bronze with a warm bronze patina and with Washington D.C., 1987, pl. 49. In writing about Ը๕
patches of green malachite encrustration the eccentric representation of the taotie, Bagley ˚͉ӷɛϗᔛ
Height 10¾ in., 27.3 cm illustrates a gu with taotie closely related to the ࡐ౱ᘽబˢ1998ϋ11˜18˚dᇜ໮875
present example (ibid, " g. 49.21) which was

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 125