.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The inscription may be read: Zhao qing fu jin zun: Qin ding zhi zao, Wen Miao pei wei gui, Tongzhi shi er nian zheng yue li, which may be translated, 'By imperial command: gui made for the Wen Temple in the first month of the twelfth year of Tongzhi'.
During the Qing dynasty vessels of this archaistic form were made in porcelain as ceremonial or ritual vessels. A vessel of this gui form can be seen as part of a set of vessels covered in a 'shadowy blue' glaze included in the Special Exhibition in Kaohsiung City loaned by the National Palace Museum's Seventieth Anniversary, Great National Treasures of China, 1994, p. 283, no. 76. These vessels in turn were based on early bronze vessels of Western Zhou date such as the pair in the Shaanxi Provincial Zhouyuan Museum included in the exhibition, Imperial China: The Art of the Horse in Chinese History, Lexington, Kentucky, 2000, p. 103, no. 61.
During the Qing dynasty vessels of this archaistic form were made in porcelain as ceremonial or ritual vessels. A vessel of this gui form can be seen as part of a set of vessels covered in a 'shadowy blue' glaze included in the Special Exhibition in Kaohsiung City loaned by the National Palace Museum's Seventieth Anniversary, Great National Treasures of China, 1994, p. 283, no. 76. These vessels in turn were based on early bronze vessels of Western Zhou date such as the pair in the Shaanxi Provincial Zhouyuan Museum included in the exhibition, Imperial China: The Art of the Horse in Chinese History, Lexington, Kentucky, 2000, p. 103, no. 61.