The Ya Li Fu Gui Gui, An exceedingly rare and important archaic bronze four-handled ritual food vessel, Early Western Zhou dynasty

Yamanaka & Co., New York or Boston, 1908.

Important American Private Collection, and thence by descent.

Colorado Museum of Natural History (now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science), Denver, by 1911 (on loan).

Denver Municipal Facts, vol. III, no. 9, Denver, 25th February 1911, p. 11.

With its striking sculptural form, remarkable inscription, and storied provenance, the exceptionally rare Ya Li Fu Gui Gui represents one of the finest archaic bronzes to come to market in recent years. Rising from a tall flaring foot up to a generous bowl supporting four robust handles, each decorated with imposing taotie masks and long serpentine pendants, the gui is a testament to the creativity and mastery of its ancient casters and the diligent stewardship of its more recent custodians.

The tall foot and bowl-like form of this extraordinary vessel were likely derived from covered vessels of dou form which, while typically produced in lacquered wood or fragile pottery, were occasionally produced in bronze by the Western Zhou. These footed vessels appear to have featured swirling designs or inlaid shells which were imitated in the bold whorls of the present design. Compare, for example, a bronze dou with prominent roundel design (the Zhou Sheng Dou), excavated in 1978 from Gaoquan Village, Baoji county, now in Shaanxi History Museum in Li Xixing, ed. The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi’an, 1994, pl. 87.

The present form is also distinguished by its four prominent handles in place of the more commonly attested pair. Whether as a demonstration of material wealth, an indication that vessels were increasingly symbols of status rather than primarily religious tools, or simply as a bold stylistic variation, these four substantial handles lend the vessel an air of majesty and grandeur rarely achieved by more standard two-handled variations and mark the piece as one of significant art-historical interest.

As with many of the finest vessels of the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties, the interior of the gui is inscribed with a brief five-character inscription, recording the identity of the elder associated with the vessel's commission – in this case a Father Gui – and the clan to which he belonged, the Ya Li. Depicting a bird above an open net, the Ya Li clan sign is exceedingly rare with just a handful of examples attested in late Shang and early Western Zhou contexts. Compare a late Shang zun vessel dedicated to Father Yi of Ya Li formerly preserved in the Shenyang Palace and now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. zhong tong 819), included in Rituals Cast in Brilliance. Chinese Bronze Through the Ages, Taipei, 2014, p. 52, alongside a bronze seal of Ya Li shi mark; a jia in the collection of the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in Tianjin Bowuguan cang qingtong qi [Bronze wares collected by the Tianjin Museum], Beijing, 2018, pl. 18; a vessel (of unidentified form) from the collection of Pan Zuyin (1830–1890) dedicated to Father Ding of Ya Li, the inscription recorded in Yinzhou jinwen jicheng [Compendium of Yin and Zhou Bronze Inscriptions], The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 2007, vol. 7, no. 10535.

Only one other extant vessel appears to bear the same inscription as the present, attributing its production to a Father Gui of the Ya Li clan: namely, a gui vessel of conventional two handled form, uncovered from the Western Zhou tomb M65 in Yejiashan, Suizhou, Hubei province, illustrated in ‘Hubei Suizhou Yejiashan M65 fajue jianbao’, Jianghan kaogu, 2011, no. 3, pp 17–19, fig. 14:1. This tomb site is most notable for its plethora of vessels attributed to the Marquis of Zeng from the early Western Zhou period and has been invaluable to scholarly understanding of the formation of the Zhou state. While the specific connection between the Ya Li clan and the ascendent marquis remains largely unexplored, the presence of Ya Li marked vessels in this family tomb context implies a direct relationship between the Ya Li and the early Western Zhou court, perhaps as vassals, ministers or a smaller clan which integrated into the ruling echelons through marriage or conquest.

The present gui is also remarkable for its storied provenance. With a rich tactile patina, finely carved hardwood stand and cover, topped with an intricate jade finial, the vessel bears all the signs of a so-called ‘heritage’ bronze uncovered in the Qing dynasty and preserved for over a century in private hands. Acquired from the renowned dealer Yamanaka Sadajirō (1866–1936) in 1908, the Ya Li Fu Gui Gui appears to have been among the first major bronzes to be acquired in America, loaned by its original owner to the Colorado Museum of Natural History (now the Denver Museum of Nature & Science) at least by 1911, and has remained in the family collection.

To date, no other gui of identical design appears to have been uncovered with other surviving variations on the design each exceedingly rare. Compare the closely related Yihouze Gui 宜侯夨簋 in the National Museum of China, Beijing – of slightly wider form with side flanges and pairs of stylized birds to the lower register – excavated in 1954 from Yandunshan, Dantu county, Jiangsu and illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, ed., Shang Zhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of inscriptions and images of bronzes from Shang and Zhou dynasties], vol. 12, Shanghai, 2012, no. 5373; the covered Si Gui 姒簋 in a private collection, illustrated ibid., vol. 9, no. 4412; the Rong Gui 荣簋 from the Qing Court Collection, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. gu 00076949), in Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Bronze Ritual Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 29; and the Li Gui 歷簋 in the Poly Art Museum in Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., no. 4407. 

Another later-inscribed gui of very similar proportions to the present, is preserved in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (accession no. S1987.335) (Fig. 1), illustrated and discussed in length in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge, 1990, cat. no. 52, who attributes the vessel to the tenth century BCE; another gui of effaced mark with taotie masks in place of the present roundel design from the Higginson and Fogg collections, is now preserved in the Harvard Art Museums (accession no. 1944.57.17) (Fig. 2), and illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Shina-Kodo Seikwa / Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Europe and America, pt. I, vol. II, Osaka, 1933, pl. 113; and another apparently uninscribed example with birds to the lower register, from the Avery Brundage Collection is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (accession no. B60B111) (Fig. 3), illustrated on the Museum’s website.

Finally, compare the Zhongshen Gui 仲敒簋 in the Shanghai Museum – related in form but with only two handles and side flanges – discussed by Rawson, op. cit., in the context of this group and attributed to earlier date than the rest of the group by virtue of its mass and prominent foot ; and four closely related gui of four-handled pseudo-dou forms with attached square bases: one from the collection of Ye Gongchuo in Wu Zhenfeng, op. cit., no. 2512; the Yubo Gui, excavated in 1981 at Zhifangtou, Baoji, now in the Baoji City Museum, in Li Xixing, ed., The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi’an, 1994, pl. 63; the E Shu Gui in the Shanghai Museum with a more formalized upper register incorporating roundels in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 6: Xizhou 2, Beijing, 1997, pl. 107; and a gui from the collection of Mrs. C. Suydam Cutting in the Newark Art Museum, Newark (accession no. 52.174), particularly close to the present in featuring only one roundel on each face, illustrated in Rawson, op. cit., fig. 52.6, where the author attributes it to the second half of the Western Zhou.