.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
An Early Western Zhou gui with similar animal-form handles suspending a pendant and a bevelled foot is held in the Arthur Sackler Collection and is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, pp. 408-409. A further similar example is found in Robert Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C. and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1987, pp. 520-521, in which he also discusses the vertical ribbing of the main register, which may have its roots in imitating cord-marked pottery which has been seen as long ago as early Anyang.
There are also a number of Early Western Zhou gui bearing very similar decoration, but set on a tall square base rather than rounded foot rim such as our present lot. These examples include those in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto and the National Palace Museum, Taipei, as discussed in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1990, vol. IIB, p. 369 in which she references Umehara 1971, vol. 2, no. 29; Taipei 1958, 2.1.74.
There are also a number of Early Western Zhou gui bearing very similar decoration, but set on a tall square base rather than rounded foot rim such as our present lot. These examples include those in the Sumitomo Collection, Kyoto and the National Palace Museum, Taipei, as discussed in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C., 1990, vol. IIB, p. 369 in which she references Umehara 1971, vol. 2, no. 29; Taipei 1958, 2.1.74.