An archaic bronze ritual food vessel (Gui), Late Shang dynasty

Collection of Huang Jun (1880-1952).

Gump's, San Francisco.

Collection of Dr. Wallace (1880-1971) and Alice Smith, acquired prior to 1971.

Huang Jun, Yezhong pianyu sanji [Feathers from Yezhong series III], vol. 1, Beijing, 1942, p. 28.

Kenneth E. Foster, A Handbook of Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Claremont, 1949, cat. no. 17.

Bernhard Karlgren, 'Marginalia on some Bronze Albums', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 31, 1959, pl. 68a.

Chen Mengjia, Meidiguozhuyi jielue de woguo Yin Zhou tongqi jilu [Compilation of Yin and Zhou archaic bronzes in America], Beijing, 1962, no. A157.

Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Washington D.C., 1990, p. 355, fig. 36.3.

Chen Mengjia, Meiguo suocang Zhongguo tongqi jilu [Catalogue of Chinese bronzes in American collections], vol. 1, Beijing, 2016, no. A157.

Gao Yi, 'Shangzhou qingtongqi goulian leiwen chutan [First study of the interlocked T-hook pattern on archaic bronzes of Shang and Zhou period]', Wenwu chunqiu, 2018, no. 3, p. 17 (unillustrated).

Crisply cast, the present gui is notable for its rare elaborate decoration that is seldom seen on vessels of this type. The body of the vessel is casted with a leiwen ground, yet decorated without bosses in relief, and furthermore broken up by vertical flanges to the center. Exceptionally rare, the only comparable gui of this design seems to be one from the Sumitomo Collection illustrated in Bernhard Karlgren's seminal work New Studies on Chinese Bronzes, Stockholm, 1937, cat. no. 385, where he described the bronze with a 'belly covered with compound lozenges (no spikes), neck belt with beaked dragons, foot belt with turning dragons. Yin inscription.'

Compare also two gui of quite dissimilar forms but closely related leiwen designs to the belly: one with an attached square base and heavily corroded rim in the collection of the Musée Guimet, illustrated in Haiwai yizhen: Tongqi / Hai-wai Yi-chen: Chinese Art in Overseas Collections. Bronze, vol. I, Taipei, 1985, pl. 81; and another on a high splayed foot in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in ibid., vol. II, Taipei, 1988, pl. 12.