A bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Western Zhou dynasty (1100-771 BC)

26 octobre 2019

A bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Western Zhou dynasty (1100-771 BC)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_000(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_001(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_002(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_003(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_004(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

2019_CKS_17114_0001_005(a_bronze_ritual_food_vessel_and_cover_gui_western_zhou_dynasty)

Lot 1. A bronze ritual food vessel and cover, gui, Western Zhou dynasty (1100-771 BC); 12 ½ in. (31.8 cm.) wide, across the handles. Estimate GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000 (USD 38,550 - USD 64,250). Price realised GBP 77,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019

The body is cast with horizontal grooves between a double band of stylised scale patterns to the rim and a lappet band to the foot and is flanked by two animal-head C-form handles. The vessel is supported on three claw-form feet with animal heads to the top. The cover is similarly decorated with concentric grooves and a further band of scale patterns. There is a later-added inscription to the interior base of the vessel and to the interior of the cover.

Provenance: C.T. Loo, Paris, by repute.
Private European Collection, acquired prior to 1998.

Note: Compare the current vessel to a gui of very similar form in the Sackler Collection, dated to the late Western Zhou period, supported on tripod feet and with comparable horizontal grooves characteristic of the late Western Zhou dynasty, illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1990, p. 446, no. 57. The Sackler example is decorated with three single bands of scale patterns to the mouth rim and foot of the vessel, and to the rim of the cover, whereas the present gui is cast with a double band of scale patterns to the rim and an attractive lappet band to the foot.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 5 November 2019