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Offering Vessel for Grain

Original Language TitleKuei
Original Language TitleGui
CultureChinese
Datelate 11th-early 10th century B.C.E.
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 13 × 15 1/2 inches (33.02 × 39.37 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust
Object number47-26
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 230
Collections
Gallery Label
This powerful vessel epitomizes the flamboyant approach to form and decoration favored during the early Western Zhou period. In order to enhance its visual presence, the vessel is furnished with a square stand and massive handles. Instead of the fine spiral ornament typical during the Shang period, plain surfaces and bold relief predominate. An inscription on the interior of the bowl states that a certain Earl Huan commissioned the vessel at the cost of 13 strings of cowries, the standard currency unit of the time.
Provenance

Gu Shoucang 顧壽臧 (1825-early 20th c.?);

Tonying and Co, before 1947;

Purchased from Tonying and Co by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1947.

Published References

Xi qing xu jian jia bian [20 juan] fu lu 1 juan [Qing Gaozhong chi bian], juan 12, ye 39, 西清續鑑甲編 [20] 附錄1 [清高宗敕編]. hanghai : Han fen lou 上海 : 涵芬樓Xuantong geng xu 1910

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 172 (repro.).

William Watson, “On Some Categories of Archaism In Chinese Bronze,” Ars Orientalis The Arts of Islam and the East, vol. 9 (Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, 1973), Pl. 4, fig. 8 (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 278 (repro.).

Orientations, Special issue for the Chinese art collection in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Vol. 39, no. 8 (November/December 2008), 69-70, fig. 5, fig. 5a (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 292, pl. 27 (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


assembled overall
19th-20th century
2017.32.1,2
Ritual Wine Vessel
12th-11th century B.C.E.
58-9
Ritual Cooking Vessel
late 11th century B.C.E.
41-33
Ritual Wine Vessel
12th-11th century B.C.E.
54-26
overall
Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.E.)
32-68/45 A,B
overall
12th-11th century B.C.E.
55-52
Wine Vessel (zun)
Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-9 C.E.)
46-91
lid underside overall
Warring States period (480-221 B.C.E.)
32-68/11
Ritual Wine Vessel
late 11th century B.C.E.
51-28 A,B
Vessel
Tang dynasty (618-906 C.E.)
R61-16/8
recto overall
Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.E.)
32-68/2 A,B
overall
mid-19th century
32-68/4 A,B