Lot 152. An inscribed archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, gu, Shang dynasty (c. 1500-1050 BC); h. 29.7 cm. Lot sold: 882,000 HKD (Estimate: 400,000 - 600,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

of slender waisted form supported on a tall footring, cast around the mid-section and splayed foot with pairs of zoomorphic masks centred by notched flanges against a leiwen ground, the registers divided by double bowstrings with two cruciform motifs, all below a tall trumpet neck decorated with a band of angular serpents and four blades enclosing leiwen pattern, cast to the inside of the base with a single character reading xing.

Provenance: Collection of Rafi Y. Mottahedeh (1901-78), New York.
R.H. Ellsworth Ltd, New York, April 1988.

Note: See a related gu, also bearing the xing inscription and attributed to the early Western Zhou dynasty, published in Wu Zhenfeng, ShangZhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of inscriptions and images of bronzes from Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 18, Shanghai, 2012, no. 08968.

Sotheby's. HOTUNG  The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 9 October 2022