Page 185 - Sotheby's NYC September 20 2022 Forging An Empire Bronzes

he present gui is extremely rare on account of the dragon roundel cast to the underside
of the base. For other gui examples cast with similar dragon roundels, see two illustrated
Tin Xueqin Li and Sarah Allan, Chinese Bronzes: A Selection from European Collections,
Beijing, 1995, pls 85 A-D and 86 A-C, the former in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne; the rubbing
of a dragon roundel of a third is illustrated in Zou An, Zhou jinwen cun [Surviving bronze inscriptions from
the Zhou dynasty], vol. 3, Shanghai, 1916, no. 94. Compare another gui, also in the Museum, but with
a roundel of two dragons, one of smaller size next to the other’s tail and with a zi character cast to the
head of the larger dragon, illustrated in ibid., pls 84 A-B. Interestingly, in 1985, an excavation of a Shang
dynasty tomb in the village of Jingjie, Lingshi county, Shanxi province, revealed a gui cast with a mule to
the underside of the base, illustrated in ‘Shanxi lingshi jingjie cun shang mu’, Wenwu, 1986, vol. 11,
figs 4, 6, and 8-2.