Page 198 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

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A SMALL BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, MU NING RI XIN GUI
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is raised on a tall spreading foot decorated with two pairs of confronted kui dragons. The
body is decorated on each side with a taotie mask centered on a low fange, below a band of kui dragons
confronted on an animal mask cast in high relief, all reserved on a leiwen ground. A four-character
inscription, mu ning ri xin, is cast in the bottom of the interior. The surface has a greenish patina with
malachite encrustation overall.
5¡ in. (13.7 cm.) high
$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE
The Mengdiexuan Collection, Hong Kong, acquired prior to 1990.
EXHIBITED
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes,
12 October - 2 December 1990.
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth,
18 January 2002-30 August 2006.
Hong Kong, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, The First Dragon of China: Hong Kong’s
Dragon Culture, 10 February 2012-27 January 2013.

LITERATURE
J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, p. 116, no. 29 (part).
For a discussion of the Mu Ning Ri Xin group of bronzes see the note to lot 908.
An almost identical gui vessel bearing the same inscription in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo,
which is likely the companion to the present gui, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu
Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 17.
商晚期 青銅母嬣日辛簋

(inscription) (rubbing of inscription)

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