EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

A very similar bronze gui dated to the early Western Zhou period, but of smaller size (23.2 cm. across handles) and with two small animal heads centering the upper register on either side, is illustrated by J. Rawson in Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 390-1, no. 45, and was subsequently sold at Christie’s New York, 17 March 2017, lot 1005. Two further similar examples are illustrated in articles reprinted in Chinese Bronzes: Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong. One is in the Klingenberg Collection in the Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin, and is illustrated by H. Butz, "Early Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Museum of East Asian Art", p. 382, fig. 10. The diamond-and-boss band is very similar to that on the current gui, but the narrow registers on the Berlin example feature different decoration. The other gui, in the Seattle Art Museum, is illustrated by M. Knight, "Bronze in Chinese Culture from the Shang to the Tang Dynasty", p. 207, fig. 5. The diamond-and-boss band on the Seattle gui is wider than that on the current gui and the other aforementioned examples and features five rows of bosses as opposed to three rows.