Page 135 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

179. Ritual bronze wine vessel gu
Shang dynasty, Yinxu period, circa 13 - 11 centuries bc.
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商代殷墟時期青銅觚
Height: 27.8 cm

An archaic bronze wine vessel gu, with a trumpet-shaped Inscription:
body standing on a splayed conical foot. The lower part ▪ A single pictogram, cast inside the foot of the vessel
of the vessel’s long neck is decorated with a wide, slightly reads: “zi”《子,meaning son》.
protruding band of decoration featuring two sharply
cast taotie masks with globulous eyes, each centred on a Provenance:
vertical flange on a leiwen background, while the conical ▪ Baron von Heeckeren Collection, Amsterdam, the
upper section of the vessel’s foot is decorated with two Netherlands.
stylized birds, shown in profile, with rectangular bulging ▪ A. Vecht Collection, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
eyes, powerful beaks, and front legs ending in claws, all ▪ Dominique Fourcade Collection, Paris, France.
on a deeply cast leiwen background. ▪ Eskenazi Ltd, London, U.K.

The vessel has a light green patina. Similar example:
▪ A very similar gu in the British Museum is published
in Hayashi M., In Shu Jidai Seidoki no Kenkyu (In
Shu Seidoki Soran Ichi), Conspectus of Yin and Zhou
Bronzes, Tokyo 1984, Vol. I - Plates, p. 319, no. 37.

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