An archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, gu, Shang dynasty, Anyang phase | 商代安陽時期 青銅觚

This bronze vessel is remarkable for its fine and crisp casting of high-relief motifs against the leiwen ground, typical of the final stage of the artistic development in Anyang. The flaring trumpet neck is cast with four elongated blades, another innovation of Anyang bronzes; each blade encloses a stylized cicada with bulging eyes forming dispersed elements of an animal mask in raised relief.
 
It is unusual to find the cusped quatrefoils below the blades for this type of gu, other comparables with this distinctive feature include a gu published in Ancient Chinese Bronzes from an English Private Collection, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 1999, cat. no. 1; and two similar examples published in Minao Hayashi, Studies on Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration: A Conspectus of Yin and Zhou Bronze Vessels, vol. 1 Tokyo, 1986, pls 143 and 145.  

Compare also two stylistically similar gu, but with snakes instead of quatrefoils: the first one in the collection of Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Complete Collection of Chinese Archaic Bronzes, vol. 2: Shang, Beijing, 1997, pl. 122; and the other sold in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2022, lot 230. Another with kui dragons instead, published in J.J. Lally, Chinese Archaic Bronzes. The Collection of Daniel Shapiro, New York, 2014, cat. no. 3.