Lot 11. An archaic bronze ritual food vessel (gui), Late Western Zhou dynasty. Estimate 30,000 — 40,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

raised on three paw feet issuing from stylized animal masks, the compressed globular body cast with concave horizontal bands between borders of stylized hooked dragon motifs at the foot and rim, set to each side with large horned-animal masks issuing tabbed loop handles, the silvery-green bronze with malachite encrustation, Japanese wood box (3) - Width 15 1/4  in., 38.8 cm 

Notes: Compare a gui attributed to the late Western Zhou period of similar form and ribbed decoration, with a cover, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, vol. II, Cambridge, Mass., 1990, pl. 56. Other vessels of this type were among a hoard found at Shaochencun, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, published in line drawings by Jessica Rawson, Chinese Bronzes. Art and Ritual, London, 1987, fig. 18, with one of them illustrated in Five Thousand Years of Chinese Art, Shang Chou Dynasty Bronze VIII, Kuei Vessels, Taipei, 1989, pl. 47 and p. 163, fig. 105. Further gui and cover of this form include one sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 2; another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 7th July 2003, lot 620; and a third from the Ellsworth Collection sold in these rooms, 19th March 2002, lot 18.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gor: Early Chinese Art, New York, 13 Sep 2016, 10:00 AM