A very rare bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Early Western Zhou dynasty, 12th-11th century BC

14 février 2020

A very rare bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Early Western Zhou dynasty, 12th-11th century BC

Lot 1241. A very rare bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Early Western Zhou dynasty, 12th-11th century BC; 9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) across handles. Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Price realised USD 302,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011

Raised on a tall, splayed pedestal foot cast around the sides with four taotie masks framed by the pendent blades of the long handles which issue from bovine masks with pronounced horns and interrupt a band of alternating whorls and descending dragons beneath the everted rim, the design repeated on the domed cover between bow-string bands beneath the flared finial, the interior of the vessel and cover cast with a seven-character inscription.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong in 1991.
The Tsui Museum of Art.

Exhibited: Gems of Chinese Art: Selections of Ceramics and Bronzes from the Tsui Art Foundation, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1992-95, no. 4.

Note: The inscription in the vessel reads Bao zun yi X zuo Fu yi, which may be translated as 'X had this ritual vessel cast for Father Yi'. The same inscription is repeated on the inside of the cover. However, the two columns of characters are reversed and some characters are inverted.

A very similar four-handled gui dated early Western Zhou, of approximately the same size, but lacking a cover, is illustrated by R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C. and Cambridge, 1987, p. 416, no. 52. The author illustrates several other comparable examples, including one from Jiangsu Dantu Yandunshan, p. 419, fig. 52.3; one in the Shanghai Museum, p. 419, fig. 52.4; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, p. 420, fig. 52.5; and a further similar example in the Shanghai Museum, which is raised on an integral tall square base, p. 422, fig. 52.7.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I and Part II Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 24 March 2011.

Posté par Alain Truong à 17:04 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: bronze, gui, ritual food vessel and cover, 12th-11th Century BC, Early Western Zhou Dynasty, Tsui Museum of Art