CHINESE BRONZE RITUAL FOOD VESSEL
Prob. EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC.
The body, of slightly bellied profile, is raised on a tall foot encircled by a narrow band of angular scrolls set between ring borders which is repeated on the neck above a wide band of auspicious pattern. There is a small animal mask cast in relief on each side below the flared rim, and there is a pair of scroll-decorated loop handles that issue from bovine masks. The bronze has a mottled grey and milky green patina and some malachite encrustation.
dimension: 5-1/2"H x 10"diam.

Lot Notes
One character of the pictograph is a bird standing in profile with a crest on its head. The character may be a clan name, and is the bronze script form of the character Yuan, which is a type of bird. The second character may be read as the character zhu.
Compare the similar gui illustrated by J. Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Shackler Collections, Washington DC/Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, pp. 390-1, no. 45, and another similar example sold in these rooms, 19 September 2006, lot 148.