The mid-section and foot are finely cast with bands of taotie masks on a leiwen ground, those on the foot below a band of dragons, all divided and separated by narrow notched flanges. The trumpet neck is cast with leiwen-filled blades above a band of serpents.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 1992.

Note: By the twelfth century BC, the shape of gu had become more attenuated, which was accentuated by the straight profile of the lengthened mid-section. This can be seen in the present gu, as well as others of twelfth-century date that are cast with decoration similar to that of the present gu, such as the example of comparable height (30.8 cm. high) illustrated by Steven D. Owyoung, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Saint Louis Art Museum, 1997, pp. 60-61, no. 9. Two other similar gu have also been published: one (33.5 cm. high) is illustrated by Bernhard Karlgren in "Bronzes in the Hellström Collection," BMFEA, No. 20, Stockholm, 1948, Pl. 14 (1); the other (30.5 cm. high) by Bernhard Karlgren and Jan Wirgin in Chinese Bronzes: The Natanael Wessén Collection, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquites, Monograph Series, vol. 1, Stockholm, 1969, col. pl. 4, pls. 21-23, no. 15, which was later sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2019, lot 1510.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 25 September 2020