The present gu is a fine example from the late Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). Its form – tall and slender, with a wide mouth, slightly splayed foot and narrow section in between – is characteristic of the bronze gu of the period. Cast on the lower end of the neck are stylized snakes with large heads and prominent eyes, a popular motif when the production of gu peaked in the middle and late Shang dynasty. Appearing around the early Shang dynasty, bronze gu were used as drinking vessels for wine. The Confucian classic Da Dai Liji: Zengzi shi fumu (Book of Rites by Dai the Elder: Zengzi on Serving One’s Parents) 大戴禮記·曾子事父母 states: "Hold shang, gu, bei and dou without getting drunk (執觴、觚、杯、豆而不醉)". Gu are often unearthed with the wine-heating vessels jue or jia, and these vessels were likely used as a set.

This bronze vessel is notable for its elegant silhouette and elaborate ornamentation. The inside wall of the foot is cast with three pictograms reading Fu Xin Duan. Fu Xin refers to Father Xin, and Duan is a clan which appears to have been active during the late Shang dynasty. A ding bearing the same inscription as the present piece, also attributed to the same period, in the National Museum of China, Beijing, is illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of important inscriptions and images of bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 2, Shanghai, 2012, no. 883.

Several vessels of this type have been published. See one excavated in 1978 at Anyang, Henan province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji / Complete collects ion of Chinese Archaic Bronzes, vol. 2: Shang, Beijing, 1997, pl. 115; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum collects ion, Taipei, 1998, pl. 44; and a further piece from the Arthur M. Sackler collects ions, illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler collects ions, Washington D.C., 1987, pl. 38.