An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (gu), Late Shang Dynasty, 13th - 12th century BC
Lot 102. An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel (gu), Late Shang Dynasty, 13th - 12th century BC. Height 10 3/4 in., 27.2 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot sold 74,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's
of slender, waisted form, crisply cast around the mid-section and splayed foot with pairs of taotie masks with raised eyes on a fine leiwen ground, centered by notched flanges and divided by a pair of bowstrings interrupted by two cruciform and two vertical apertures, the tall flared neck encircled by a narrow spiral bound below four upright triangular blades enclosing highly stylized angular scrolls, Japanese wood box (2) .
Property from The Masaki Museum of Art.
Provenance: Japanese Collection, acquired before the 1960s.
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 11 september 2012