Page 59 - Deydier The_Lippens_Collection_of_Ancient_Chinese_Bronzes

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15 – archaic bronze wine vessel gu
SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG / YINXU PERIOD
CIRCA 14 – 12 / 11 CENTURIES B. C.
TH
TH
TH
H.: 32 CM
Archaic bronze wine vessel gu, with a high trumpet-shaped neck
decorated in high relief with four slender upright blade-like stylized
cicada motifs decorated with leiwen and emerging from a horizon-
tal band of stylized silk-worms with triangular heads and hooked
tails, all on a leiwen background.
The vessel’s central section is decorated with two taotie masks on
a leiwen background, divided down their centres and on their sides
by notched flanges that rise high from the vessel’s body.
The vessel’s sprayed foot, with similar taotie masks topped by a band
of kui dragons and with outwardly curving flanges down their centres
and on their sides, is supported by a plain high cylindrical foot.
The vessel has a light green patina.

PROVENANCE

– Zen Gallery, Belgium, 1995.
– Count & Countess Paul Lippens Collection, Brussels, Belgium, 1995.

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