Ritual wine cup (gu) with masks (taotie), snakes, and cicadas

Ceremonial vessel, type gu. Light green patina with patches of silvery grey inside and out. Design filled with a reddish pigment. Incrustations of cuprite and native copper inside and out, particularly in the two-character inscription inside the foot.

Historical period(s)
late Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1100 BCE
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
H x Diam: 29.3 × 16.7 cm (11 9/16 × 6 9/16 in)
Geography
China, probably Henan province, Anyang
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1943.9
On View Location
Sackler Gallery 24b: Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings
Classification(s)
Metalwork, Vessel
Type

Ritual vessel: gu

Keywords
Anyang period (ca. 1300 - ca. 1050 BCE), China, Shang dynasty (ca. 1600 - ca. 1050 BCE)
Provenance

From 1941 to 1943
C. T. Loo & Company, New York from November 1941 [1]

From 1943
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company on September 14, 1943 [2]

Notes:

[1] See C. T. Loo's stockcard no. 87475: "Bronze Ku Shang," C. T. Loo & Frank Caro Archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy in object file. The object was brought to the Freer Gallery for examination on March 20, 1942.

[2] See C. T. Loo's invoice, dated September 14, 1943, copy in object file.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

C.T. Loo & Company 1914-1948

Description

Ceremonial vessel, type gu. Light green patina with patches of silvery grey inside and out. Design filled with a reddish pigment. Incrustations of cuprite and native copper inside and out, particularly in the two-character inscription inside the foot.

Inscription(s)

Inscribed in the foot, She Che 涉車 ("She-Chariot Officer")

Published References
  • Shang Chou chin wen shi ch'eng. Multi-volume, Taipei. cat. 6759.
  • Chin wen tsung chi. Taipei. vol. 8: p. 3358.
  • Chen Mengjia. Yin Zhou qing tong qi fen lei tu lu [Yin-Chou ch'ing t'ung ch'i fen lei t'u lu]. 2 vols., Dongjing. vol. 2.
  • Grace Dunham Guest, Archibald Gibson Wenley. Annotated Outlines of the History of Chinese Arts. Washington, 1949. p. 1.
  • Freer Gallery of Art. The Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington. p. 8.
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Rutherford John Gettens, James Cahill, Noel Barnard. The Freer Chinese Bronzes. Oriental Studies Series, vol. 1, no. 7 Washington. cat. 9, p. 65.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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