Page 10 - Bonhams Sept 2016 CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS

Detail

PROPERTY FROM THE MONTEREY MUSEUM OF ART, Provenance
SOLD TO BENEFIT THE MUSEUM FUNDS The Monterey Museum of Art, accession number 1985.016

8012 The pictographs cast in the interior of the foot read 册子朱皿, which can
AN INSCRIBED ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU be interpreted as meaning that a member of the Zhu family has been
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG PERIOD, granted the title of viscount.
13th-11th century BC
Finely cast, with decoration in three registers, rising on a circular, The quality of casting seen in this gu is very high and the design is
splayed foot, decorated with birds with hooked beaks and circular, a classic example of the mature Anyang-period ‘Style 5’ as defined
raised eyes forming taotie masks, all set on a geometric leiwen scroll by Max Loehr and illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Bronzes: Art
ground, rising to a bulbous central section with similar decoration, the and Ritual, London, 1987, p. 27, fig. 9(f). A bronze gu with similar
surface divided by four notched, vertical flanges, this central register casting quality and with related leiwen scroll decoration, notched
delimited by a single string border above and a contoured double flanges and string borders dividing the three sections, dated Anyang
string border below, the flaring trumpet neck decorated with upright period, Shang dynasty, 12th-11th century BC, is in the collection
blades above an unusual band of geometric rosettes, the interior of of the Freer Sackler Museum, Washington D.C., accession number
the foot with cast pictographs, the bronze weathered to a soft greyish F1940.3. A related gu, also with a nearly identical band of highly
green patina. unusual geometric rosettes and dated 13-12th century BC, was sold
6 7/8in (17.4cm) high at Christie’s New York, 15 March 2015, sale 3720, lot 3179. A further
bronze gu, dated 13th-12th century BC, formerly in the Arthur M.
US$40,000 - 60,000 Sackler collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 18 March 2009,
sale 2268, lot 201. It exhibits similarly broad proportions and surface
晚商安陽時期 公元前十三至十一世紀 青銅饕餮紋出戟觚 《册子朱皿》 decoration.
款

8 | BONHAMS