Page 248 - Christie's Asia Week March 2024 Chinese Art

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART INCLUDING THE COLLECTION OF DOROTHY TAPPER GOLDMAN 重要中४藝術暨高曼珍藏

The Property of a Gentleman The Property of a Gentleman
1136 1137
A RARE BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GONG Gong can vary quite dramatically in the arrangement of the decoration. A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY BC On some, there are horizontal and vertical divisions created by vertical WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC
The vessel is cast on the interior with an inscription reading: Fu [ ] Qian (Father flanges on the body, such as the gong illustrated in The Complete The interior of the vessel has a five-character inscription reading zuo Fu Yi
[ ] Qian). Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 27 - Bronze Ritual bao gui (Precious gui made for Father Yi).
8 in. (20.4 cm.) long Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 140, no. 89, 10¬ in. (27 cm.) wide across handles
while on others the decoration on the sides of the body is a direct
$30,000-50,000 $30,000-50,000
continuation of the animal on the cover, such as the example from
PROVENANCE: Xiaotun Locus North, at Yinxu, Anyang, Henan province included PROVENANCE:
Acquired in Tokyo in the early 1990s. in the exhibition, The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology, National Acquired in Hong Kong in the early 1990s.
Gallery of Art, Washington and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, 1999-2000, pp. 170-2, no. 49. In a few instances, such as
The bronze gong is one of the wine vessel types that appeared during the present gong, and an example, which retains its cover, in the Norton Two very similar gui, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, are
the Anyang period of the Shang dynasty without being based on earlier Gallery and School of Art, illustrated by M. Loehr, Ritual Vessels of illustrated in Catalogue to the Special Exhibition of Grain Vessels
ceramic prototypes, and by the middle of the Western Zhou dynasty it Bronze Age China, The Asia Society, New York, 1960, no. 34, the of the Shang and Chou Dynasties, Taipei, 1985, pp. 280-3, pls. 54-5,
had disappeared. The shape of the vessel facilitated pouring the wine, stylized body of the dragon continues down from the cover onto the where they are dated middle Western Zhou dynasty. Other gui of
while the cover sealed in warmth and kept out contaminants. These vessel, which has additional zoomorphic designs arranged in quadrants. similar proportions and with similar blunt-horned animal heads
ritual wine vessels, with their fascinating zoomorphic imagery, share decorating the handles, but with different bands of decoration below
the same general shape, with some of rectangular form rather than the ૈ♥珍藏 the rim, are illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes
more graceful oval section of the present vessel, and have either the 晚商 Ռ元ע十̣ˠ紀 青銅 from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, DC and
head of a tiger or a dragon, and in a few instances a bovine, forming the 銘文：ḍƹ臤 Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, vol. IIB, pp. 380-9, nos. 42-4.
front of the cover. Ϝ源 (inscription)
1990年代׀Ն藏於東̺ ૈ♥珍藏
西周 Ռ元ע十ˠ紀 青銅簋
銘文：ηḍ̋寶簋
Ϝ源
1990年代׀Ն藏於香港

(inscription)

246 247