Page 10 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
1101
A BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, GU
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, 12TH CENTURY BC
The tall, slender vessel is crisply cast in low relief
on the trumpet-shaped neck with four blades
flled with inverted masks above a narrow band
of angular snakes, and on the center section and
the spreading foot with taotie masks divided and
separated by notched fanges. Those on the foot
are set below two pairs of confronted dragons.
The elements of the decoration are cast with
leiwen and reserved on leiwen grounds. The
bronze has a mottled milky-green patina and
some areas of malachite encrustation.
12¬ in. (32 cm.) high, Japanese double
wood boxes
$30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE
Rikunosuke Ogawa Collection, Kyoto,
prior to 1935.
Christie’s New York, 21-22 March 2013, lot 1222.
Gu, which were ritual vessels used for wine, are
one of the most recognizable of bronze forms of
the Shang dynasty. The vessels date to as early
as the Erlitou period, circa 2000 to 1500 BC, at
which time they were a simple slender beaker,
and eventually evolved into the elegant trumpet-
mouthed vessel of the late Anyang period of
12th-11th century BC date, as exemplifed by this
fnely cast example.

A comparable gu is illustrated by R.W. Bagley,
Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler
Collections, The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation,
1987, p. 248, no. 36. See, also, the gu illustrated
by W.T. Chase in Ancient Chinese Bronze Art,
China House Gallery, New York, 1991, no. 9; and
another by M. Loehr in Relics of Ancient China,
The Asia Society, 1965, p. 41, no. 11.
商晚期 青銅饕餮紋觚

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