A fine ritual wine vessel 'gu'

Description:

China, Shang dynasty
H. 27,8 cm
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 apertures, the tall flared neck encircled at the base by a narrow band of hooked scroll serpents with protuberant eyes all below four upright triangular blades enclosing parallel hooked lines and further leiwen, the patina of silvery green color with areas of light encrustation, the inside of the base bears an inscription. Weight: 1.171 kg.
From the collection of the chemist, engineer and director of Merck & Co. Heinrich Georg Johann Harms (3.9.1906-28.6.1975) and his wife Eva Harms (10.11.1905-13.10.1998), largely collected in Shanghai between 1935 and 1942
The present Gu is characterised by its fine proportions and its clear, even mould. A gu similar to the present one is illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, p. 255, no. 38. Another gu with the same decorative stripes in the Palace Museum is illustrated in Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Peking, 1999, no. 43. - Very slightly chipped