Page 28 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

1015
A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI

LATE SHANG-EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH CENTURY BC
The sides are cast with vertical ribbing between an upper band of kui dragons alternating with whorl
bosses centered on each side by a high-relief animal mask and a band of kui dragons on the splayed foot.
The large, loop handles have horned feline masks and terminate in a vertical tab cast with stylized dragons.
The interior has a three or four-character inscription and there are areas of malachite encrustation.
10æ in. (27.6 cm.) wide across the handles
$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE

Spink and Son Ltd., London.
Christie’s New York, 18 September 1997, lot 326.
Important private collection, Taiwan.

LITERATURE

Wang Tao and Liu Yu, ed., A Selection of Early Chinese Bronzes with Inscriptions from Sotheby’s and
Christie’s, Shanghai, 2007, no. 88.
Wu Zhenfeng, ed., Shang Zhou qing tong qi ming wen ji tu xiang ji cheng (Corpus of Inscriptions and Images
from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 8, p. 260, no. 03975.
Jia Wenzhong and Jia Shu, ed., Jijin cuiying: Jiashi zhencang qingtongqi laopian (Old Photos of Bronzes from
the Collection of Jia Family), Beijing, 2016, p. 164, no. 197.

The inscription on the interior of this gui is comprised of a composite clan sign and two characters, fu
ding (father ding). The same inscription can be found on a ding vessel included in Yinzhou jinwen jicheng
(Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions), The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, Beijing, 1984, no. 1861. However, no image of this ding appears to have been published.
An early Western Zhou gui of similar form and decoration is illustrated by Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou
qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng (Compendium of Inscriptions and Images of Bronzes from the
Shang and Zhou Dynasties), Shanghai, 2012, vol. 8, p. 314, no. 4037. Most other similar examples feature
a band of fower-like motifs alternating with whorl bosses around the foot, including a famous late
Shang gui with a lengthy inscription dated to the 20th year of the reign of one of the last two Shang
kings, illustrated by R. W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur
M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 416-20, no. 74; another late Shang example formerly in the collection
of C.T. Loo & Co., is illustrated by Chen Mengjia, Yin Zhou qingtongqi fenlei tulu (In Shu seidoki bunrui
zuroku; A Corpus of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections), 2 vols., Tokyo, 1977, no. A197; and an
early Western Zhou example excavated from Hejia village, Qishan county, Shaanxi province, illustrated
by Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., p. 122, no. 3811.
商晚期/西周早期 青銅直棱紋簋

(inscription)

26