A finely cast archaic bronze 'bird' food vessel and cover (gui) Western Zhou Dynasty

the broad U-shaped body finely cast in low-relief on the main register with two pairs of confronting birds, each with long tails, plumes and crests billowing over the body, centered on a barbed flange, set between a narrow register with four further pairs of confronting birds around the mouth, separated by a pair of high-relief cast animal masks, the foot encircled by a pair of split-eye bosses with diagonal bands of hooks and volutes, all reserved on a dense leiwen ground, sides flanked by a pair of bird-head handles, each with a curled crest on the head and its body emanating from below the beak, the area beneath the handle cast with a single cicada, fitted with a domed cover similarly cast with low-relief birds on a leiwen ground, each separated by a low barbed flange, all below a  hollow circular finial, the metal with green patina, encrusted on the cover with malachite and azurite, the interior of the vessel and the cover cast with matching fourteen-character inscriptions (2)

Acquired in Taipei, Taiwan, 1982. 

Ching Wan Society Millennium Exhibition, Taipei, Taiwan, October 2000, cat.no. 114.

The cover with approx. eight small cracks to the underside of the lip, four of which extend to the cover slightly, one of these to the extent of 1/2 inch, there appears to be a 1 1/2 by 3/4 inch repair to the raised circular flange on the top of the cover with heavier malachite encrustation than the rest of the cover, scattered cuprite and malachite encrustation, under UV light there is a 1/4 inch diameter dot which glows orange to the interior of the cover, but nothing else is evident, cover does not fit flush on vessel; the vessel may have had breaks which have been repaired and at least 50% of the surface appears to have enhanced patination, making the extent of possible repairs uncertain, under UV light no repairs or restorations show
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This food vessel is splendidly designed, with its striking decoration of birds on the body as well as the cover, subsidiary bird motifs at the neck, and bird-shaped handles. This flamboyant bird motif, with outsized plumes encircling the body, was popular for a short period in the middle Western Zhou dynasty, particularly during the reigns of King Mu (956-918 B.C.) and King Gong (917/15-900 B.C.), but it is extremely rare to find a gui of this design which still retains its cover. 

One closely related gui with cover, with a very long inscription, was excavated at Zhuangbaijia, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, and is published in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol.5, Beijing, 1996, pl.59, of similar form but lacking the flanges, and with the bird design as well as the bird handles more naturalistically rendered.

A gui in the Palace Museum, Beijing, from the Qing Court Collection, with similar large bird motifs on the body, narrow bird borders at the neck, and bird handles, but lacking a cover, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Bronze Ritual Vessels and Musical Instruments, Hong Kong, 2006, pl.30.

Other related gui without covers, with slightly different handles, with the birds' heads raised above the body, are published in Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp.424-33, including a gui in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., ibid., pl.54; one in the Musee Guimet, Paris, fig.54.1; and another with a square pedestal, fig.54.4, but with a snake border at the neck. Compare also a gui and cover from the Sumitomo collection, with very similar bird handles, but undecorated except for a narrow bird border at the neck and the cover, ibid., fig.54.3. A bird-decorated cover of a gui without flanges in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in Berhard Karlgren, 'Yin and Chou in Chinese Bronzes', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 1935,  no.C67, pl.XXVII

Rawson also discusses these stylized bird motifs of the middle Western Zhou period, ibid., pp.75-83, where she illustrates examples of these designs from gui as well as other vessel shapes. Similar bird designs can also be seen in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, op.cit., pls. 54 and 60, on two gui on square bases, one with similar bird handles, the other with animal handles, and pls. 160-61 and 174-5, on two zun and two you.

The fourteen-character inscription on the present vessel reads Shou zhao su xi ming xiang zuo wen kao ri xin bao zun yi and can be translated 'Shou, in order to present mornings and evenings sacrificial offerings has made this precious ceremonial vessel for his deceased father on the day xin'. Except for the first character, the inscription is identical to that on the Fu fang zun, a majestic vessel, also from the middle Western Zhou period, in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Gugong Xi Zhou jinwen lu/Catalogue of Western Chou Bronze Inscription in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2001, no.67.