A Bronze Ritual Wine Vessel, gu. Shang dynasty, 13th-12th century BC

The trumpet-shaped neck with four upright blades flat-cast with inverted taotie masks reserved on a leiwen ground, above a narrow band of long-tailed birds, the middle section with two taotie masks with boss-like eyes divided and separated by slender notched flanges repeated on the spreading foot cast with a narrow band of confronted birds above a band of two pairs of confronted dragons, with mottled green patina and areas of malachite encrustation. 10¾ in. (27.3 cm.) high.  Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000 - Price Realized: $25,000 

Provenance : Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1990s.

Notes : A most unusual feature of this gu is the two narrow bands of long-tailed birds flanking the middle section, which are more naturalistically rendered than the more angular, hook-beaked birds commonly encountered on bronzes of the late Shang and early Western Zhou periods.
A very similar gu with almost identical cast elements, but with narrow bands of cicadas and dragons rather than birds, in the collection of C. Hollinger-Hasler, Winterthur, Switzerland, is illustrated by H. Brinker, Bronzen aus dem alten China, Zurich, 1975, p. 78, no. 35. See, also, the gu illustrated by R.W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1987, pp. 240-1, no. 33, which also has similar decoration, but has narrow bands of snakes and cicadas.

Christie's. Masterworks of Ancient and Imperial China. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza. www.christies.com