Page 68 - Important Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from a Distinguished European Collection

The present Shi Gu published in Mostra d'Arte Cinese, Settimo Centenario di Marco Polo, Venice, 1954, no. 5.
本件史觚在《Mostra d'Arte Cinese, Settimo Centenario di Marco Polo》，威尼斯，1954年，編號5中的著錄。

The clan sign, Shi, cast on the interior of the foot of the present vessel is made up of two components:
a hand on the left side, and a bamboo slip book on the lower right side, together giving the impression
of a hand holding a book. This particular clan mark is associated with a person of oficial title who
kept the historical records of the royal family, from whom the Shi clan were likely to have been
descendants. A ding vessel dated to the late Shang dynasty, inscribed with the Shi clan sign on the
interior of the mouth, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and is illustrated in
A Catalogue of Shang Dynasty Bronze Inscriptions: Ancient Chinese Script from the 1st Millennium B.C.,
Taipei, 1995, p. 48-49, no. 6.
This fnely cast gu is associated with the ‘mature’ style of gu from Anyang (13th to 11th century BC),
which all exhibit the same distinctive structure and the same decorative format of motifs. Gu were
one of the most important vessels used in Shang ritual practices, attested to by the inclusion of ffty-
three in the tomb of Fu Hao. See B. Kalgren and J. Wirgin, “Chinese Bronzes, The Nathanael Wessén
Collection”, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Monograph Series, vol. 1, Stockholm, 1969, p. 74,
for a discussion of the present gu and its origin from Anyang, and where the authors note that “the
workmanship of this vessel is of the highest class.”
A similar gu of comparable size (31.5 cm. high) in the van der Mandele Collection is illustrated by
H.F.E. Visser in Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium, Amsterdam, 1948, pl. 5, no. 6.
Another comparable example of the same size as the present gu from the Sze Yuan Tang Collection,
was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2010, lot 809.

此器足內所鑄族徽，象一手執竹簡之形，意為專門紀錄和編撰歷史之人，是商周時期的一個官職。此族徽屬
於以官職稱謂為氏，而史族可能為世襲的史官家族。國立故宮博物院藏有一件商晚期鼎，口內亦鑄史族徽，
見《商代金文圖錄：三千年前中國文字特展》，台北，1995年，頁 48-49，編號 6。
此觚鑄工精湛，屬安陽時期（公元前十三世紀至十一世紀初）的“成熟”風格，這一時期的器物紋飾結構清
晰、組合有序，富有秩序美感。觚為商代禮器中最不可或缺的一類，婦好墓青銅器群便含有53件觚。
B. Kalgren和J. Wirgin曾探討此器來自安陽，更指出「此觚的工藝為頂級之作」，見‘Chinese Bronzes,
The Nathanael Wessén Collection‘，《The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Monograph
Series》，斯德哥爾摩，1969年，頁 74。

Van der Mandele收藏中有一件與本件拍品相似的觚，尺寸亦相近（高31.5公分），載於H.F.E. Visser，
《Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium, Amsterdam》，1948年，圖版5，
編號 6 。 思源堂舊藏有另一件與此器近似且尺寸相同的觚，鑄有一復合族徽， 2010年9月16日於紐約佳
士得拍賣，拍品809號。

66 POWER and PRESTIGE IMPORTANT EARLY CHINESE RITUAL BRONZES FROM A DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN COLLECTION