Page 261 - Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr, Property from the estate of Jean-Pierre Rousset (1936-2021)

211
VASE RITUEL EN BRONZE ARCHAÏQUE, 商晚期 青铜饕餮纹 觚
GU
Fin de la dynastie Shang 來源：
(ca XII-XIe siècles av. J.-C.) 巴黎Robert Rousset（1901-1981）舊藏
巴黎Jean-Pierre Rousset（1936-2021）舊藏
A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE RITUAL WINE 據Jean-Pierre Rousset記錄記載，本拍品於
VESSEL, GU 1934年出土於安陽侯家莊西北岡
Late Shang Dynasty
(circa 12th-11th century BC)
Finely cast with a slender flanged central
section decorated with taotie masks, between
the neck rising to the trumpet shaped mouth
decorated with a foliate border below the
cicada blades, and the splayed tall flanged
foot similarly cast with taotie masks, all
against leiwen ground, raised on a short
straight circular foot, the interior plain and the
underside with three pictograms reading Ding
Ji and a clan sign, the bronze with attractive
encrustation and verdigris.
29cm (11 3/8in) high.
€12,000 - 15,000

Provenance:
Robert Rousset, Paris (1901-1981); according
to a note by Jean-Pierre Rousset this gu
was found in Houjiashuang, Xibeigang Royal
cemetery at Anyang in 1934
Jean-Pierre Rousset, Paris (1936-2021)
Bronze gu vessels such as the present lot were
among the most important objects used in
State rituals of the late Shang dynasty. Similar
archaic bronze gu vases from the late Shang
dynasty can be found in a number of important
museum collections.
Compare with two similar gu illustrated in
Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
1999, pp.68-69, nos.40 and 43; see another
similar gu dated to the middle/late Anyang
period, illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes
in the National Palace Museum Collection,
Taipei, 1998, pp.280-283, no.41l; and another
example in the Henan Provincial Museum,
illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Fenlei Quanji:
Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji: Shang, vol.IV,
Beijing, 2006, p.67, no.69.

The blade motif at the neck of these slender
vessels is an Anyang innovation. See R.Bagley,
Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M.Sackler
Collections, p.229. A similar gu, late Shang
dynasty, excavated in Anyang, now in the
Institute of Archaeology, The Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, Beijing, is illustrated by Li
Jianwei and Niu Ruihong, Zhongguo Qingtong
ji tulu, vol.I, Beijing, 2005, p.118 (top); see
also a related excavated example, unearthed
at Yongdoucun, Majiahe, Yanchuan county,
Shaanxi Province, in the Cultural Relics Institute
of Yan’an, Shaanxi Province, illustrated in
Bronzes from Northern Shaanxi, vol.II Chengdu,
2009, p.155; and another excavated from the
Shang tomb at Xiaqiyuan, Ci county, in the
collection of the Hebei Museum, illustrated in
National Treasures of Hebei Province, Hebei,
2008, p.100.
Compare with a related archaic bronze ritual
wine vessel, gu, late Shang dynasty, which was
sold at Bonhams London, 11 May 2021, lot 12.
THE ROUSSET COLLECTION | 259