Page 28 - Sotheby's NYC September 20 2022 Forging An Empire Bronzes

The present lot illustrated in Huang Jun, Yezhong pianyu sanji [Feathers from Yezhong series III], vol. 1, Beijing,
1942, p. 44.
本拍品錄於黃濬，《鄴中片羽三集》，卷上，北京，1942年，頁44

he present gu is a fine example from the late Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). Its form
– tall and slender, with a wide mouth, slightly splayed foot and narrow section in between
T– is characteristic of the bronze gu of the period. Cast on the lower end of the neck are
stylized snakes with large heads and prominent eyes, a popular motif when the production of gu peaked
in the middle and late Shang dynasty. Appearing around the early Shang dynasty, bronze gu were used
as drinking vessels for wine. The Confucian classic Da Dai Liji: Zengzi shi fumu (Book of Rites by Dai
the Elder: Zengzi on Serving One’s Parents) 大戴禮記·曾子事父母 states: “Hold shang, gu, bei and dou
without getting drunk (執觴、觚、杯、豆而不醉)”. Gu are often unearthed with the wine-heating vessels
jue or jia, and these vessels were likely used as a set.

This bronze vessel is notable for its elegant silhouette and elaborate ornamentation. The inside wall of
the foot is cast with three pictograms reading Fu Xin Duan. Fu Xin refers to Father Xin, and Duan is a clan
which appears to have been active during the late Shang dynasty. A ding bearing the same inscription
as the present piece, also attributed to the same period, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is
illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of important
inscriptions and images of bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 2, Shanghai, 2012, no. 883.

Several vessels of this type have been published. See one excavated in 1978 at Anyang, Henan province,
illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji / Complete Collection of Chinese Archaic Bronzes, vol. 2: Shang,
Beijing, 1997, pl. 115; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes
in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pl. 44; and a further piece from the Arthur
M. Sackler Collections, illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, Washington D.C., 1987, pl. 38.