ARCHAIC BRONZE VESSEL, GUI, WITH ANIMAL MASK AND ELONGATED DRAGON PATTERN
Ref. no.:
2059
Age:
Early Western Zhou c.11th Century B.C.
Material:
Bronze
This is solid material - DI best
Provenance:
Formerly in an Old Japanese Collection in Tokyo
Dimensions
25 x 15 cm
Description:
Raised on a high stepped foot cast with a border of four elongated abstract dragon scroll motif, mulei pattern, with centering
eyes in slightly raised bosses, the rounded body cast in relief on each side with a bold taotie mask with huge protruding eyes, large
ears, sharp canine teeth and enormous T-shaped horns above, symmetrically divided by a broad flange, flanked by simplified
bodies and strong stretching claws, all reserved on neat leiwen intaglio scrolls, with a pair of loop handles on sides emerging from a
mythical beast head with raised prominent eyes and upright horns, featuring a standing bird with wings in relief and feathers, claws
and tails in incised lines on the handles and the heavy rectangular pendants below, overall in a rare silvery patina with areas of
green encrustation
A museum piece (735:18) of similar design, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, is illustrated in National Palace Museum
ed., Catalogue to the Special Exhibition of Grain Vessels of the Shang and Chou Dynasties, 1985, pl.35, pp.240-241. Another similar
piece (11.38) in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. is illustrated in John A. Pope et al., The Freer Chinese Bronzes, 1967, vol.1,
no.64, pp.358-359; also see Bernhard Karlgren, “Marginalia on Some Bronze Albums＂, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities (BMFEA), vol.31, 1959, pl.51a.
PROVENANCE
Formerly in an Old Japanese Collection in Tokyo
