This vessel is striking for its robust form and well-defined diamond pattern and represents a group of archaic bronze ritual vessels that were produced throughout the early and middle Western Zhou period. Vessels of this type are discussed by Jessica Rawson in
Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIB, Washington D.C., 1990, pp 370-378, who notes that this design was inherited from the late Shang period and appears to have been very popular in Shaanxi province, where a large number of these vessels were excavated. While late Shang and early Western Zhou examples feature small diamonds, often with sharply projecting bosses, the large diamonds on this piece suggests a middle Western Zhou date.
Three gui with diamond patterns, but cast with various bands at the neck, in the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington D.C., are illustrated ibid., pls 40, 41 and 45. Compare also two gui with diamond patterns, excavated in Baoji, Shaanxi province, illustrated in Baoji Yu guo mudi/ Yu State Cemeteries in Baoji, Beijing, 1988, pl. CLIX, nos 1 and 3, the first with its matching cover; another unearthed at a tomb in Qucun, Quwuo county, Shanxi province, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese bronzes], Beijing, 1997, vol. 6, pl. 39; and a further example sold in our New York rooms, 21st September 2006, lot 267.