Page 78 - Status & Ritual Chinese Archaic Bronzes

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A BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL, GUI
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (12TH-11TH CENTURY BC)

西周早期 青銅直稜獸面紋簋

The bulbous exterior is cast with a wide ribbed band, set between a border of two-bodied serpents
surrounding the mouth and a band of stylised animals on a ground of leiwen around the foot. The sides are
decorated with a pair of animal-form handles, each with drop down pendant. The bronze has a mottled
brownish-green patina with extensive green encrustation.

12Ω in. (31.8 cm.) diam. across the handles

£60,000-80,000 $94,000-120,000
€83,000-110,000

PROVENANCE

From an important private European collection, acquired before 4 June 1975.

An Early Western Zhou gui in the Arthur Sackler Collection has similar animal-form handles with pendant
underneath and bevelled foot, illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur
M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, pp. 408-409. Also see a similar gui in R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in
the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 520-521.
According to Bagley, the vertical ribbing of the main register is a form of decoration that can be traced as
far back as early Anyang, perhaps imitating cord-marked pottery.

There are also a number of examples of Early Western Zhou gui bearing similar two-bodied serpent
motifs, vertical rib ornamentation, and drop-pendant animal-form handles, such as those in the Sumitomo
Collection, Kyoto and the National Palace Museum, Taibei, however these are set on a tall square base.
(J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C, 1990,
vol. IIB, p. 369 referencing Umehara 1971, vol. 2, no. 29; Taibei 1958, 2.1.74).

來源:
重要歐洲私人珍藏，於1975年6月4日前購入

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