 | | Lot No. | | *** | | Description: | An important excavated bronze vessel, The Shan Fu Liang Qi Gui, late Western Zhou, 9th/8th Century Bc. With a good original patina, the interior and inside of the cover cast with a thirty-three character inscription, translated by Dr Barnard as follows:. I the Shan Fu Officer, Liang Qi, have made(for) my august. deceased father, Hui Chung, and august deceased mother, Hui Yi, (this) honoured Gui-tureen to be employed in offerings(commemorative of) filial piety, (to be employed in) prayers for a vigorous old age - an old age without limit. A hundred(births=) sons(and) a thousand grandsons-sons and grandsons-for ever value and employ(it) in sacrifice. 25.1 cm high, 20.1 cm diameter (at mouth). Provenance. Purchased in Taipei in 1974. Published: Noel Barnard in association with Cheung Kwong-Yui, The Shang Fu Liang Ch-I Kuei and Associated Inscribed Vessels, Smc Pub Inc., Taipei, 1996, illustrated front cover, 2 colour plates inside, pp 158 & 159, and discussed throughout. According to a letter from Dr Barnard to Robert Grunberg, the inscription on the gui in the Freer Gallery has been copied from the Grunberg gui. Refer: Prof Banard discusses at length a matching Gui in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington;. Also refer: Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Bronzes in the Arthur Sackler Collections,Vol 11B, cat no 57, pp 447-451 (illust p 446). This example is remarkably similar to the Grunberg Gui, being of similar shape, size and decoration, with an iscription cast inside the body and the lid. It reads Shu Xiang Fu made this precious sacrificial gui for Xin Si; may sons and grandsons forever treasure and use it. Rawson goes on to say Other Gui bear versions of this inscription and are considered to form a contemporaneous inscribed group; also fig 56.8 & 56.9, p445 | | Estimate: | *** | | Price: | *** | | Category: | Oriental — Bronze | |
