A WELL CAST GUI WITH INSCRIPTION FROM THE WESSÈN COLLECTION

Estimated Value:

3.000 € - 5.000 €

Schätzpreis:

8.000 €

Description:

China, Western Zhou dynasty, inscribed...zuo hao gui..
B. 24 cm
The wall divided into horizontal bands, the handles arise more stylized animal heads and the round base is slightly flared, cast to the interior of the vessel with an inscription.
The Natanael Wessén Collection, Stockholm - Important Austrian private collection, acquired on 1993 at Galerie Asboth, Vienna
Published: Bernhard Karlgren and Jan Wirgin, 'Chinese Bronzes, The Natanael Wessén Collection', Stockholm 1969, p. 50, plate 9 - .Zeileis: "From Shang to Qing - Three and a Half Millennia of Chinese Bronze", 1999, No. 50, pp. 152-153
Christian Deydier writes about such bronzes in: Chinese Bronzes (New York 1980), "The middle Zhou period is illustrated by finds that come from the vicinity of Xi'an. Overall, the style of the vessels has evolved, with only a few Shang decorative elements remaining. Pure Zhou forms and motifs dominate. Scale decoration and scoring are common, while the dragons, birds, and taotie are more stylized. Based on inscriptions, such pieces can mostly be dated to around the reign of (King) Wu Wang.
Gui were used during ritual ceremonies for storing cooked rice or millet. While this vessel shape first appeared in the Erligang phase, they were not widely produced and examples from this period are rare. This form increased in popularity from the early Western Zhou dynasty, and numerous variations of the original shape also began to appear. Compare a set of bronze gui of similar form and design from one of the most important vassal states of the Western Zhou dynasty, the Guo state, excavated in the tomb of Guo Ji in Sanmenxia, Henan province, illustrated in Institute of Archaeology of Henan Province, Archaeological Team of Sanmenxia, Sanmenxia guoguo mu / The Guo State Tombs in Sanmenxia, vol. 1 (II), Beijing, 1999, pl. V; an uninscribed example, excavated from a Western Zhou tomb in Quwo county, Shanxi province, published in Wang Shimin et al., Xizhou qingtongqi fenqi duandai yanjiu / A Study of the Periodization and Dating of Western Zhou Bronzes, Beijing, 1999, p. 92, fig. 79 (line drawing); and a famous Song gui with slightly more elaborate handles and feet, in the Shandong Museum, Jinan, illustrated in Peng Qingyun, ed., Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Qingtong juan [Encyclopaedia of masterpieces of Chinese cultural relics: Bronze volume], Taipei, 1994, p. 115, no. 0401
Slightly corroded, cover lost

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