The Harcourt Johnstone Gui, a rare inscribed archaic bronze ritual food vessel, Western Zhou dynasty | 西周 青銅獸面紋簋

Yamanaka & Co., London, 1925.

Collection of Harcourt Johnstone (1895-1945).

Sotheby’s London, 13th June 1940, lot 109.

Sotheby’s London, 15th July 1980, lot 194.

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山中商會，倫敦，1925年

Harcourt Johnstone(1895-1945)收藏

倫敦蘇富比，1940年6月13日，編號109

倫敦蘇富比，1980年7月15日，編號194

Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Yamanaka & Co., London, 1925, cat. no. 8, pl. X.

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Ancient Chinese Bronzes，山中商會，倫敦，1925年， 編號 8，圖版X 

This extraordinary gui, preserved in European collections for almost a century, represents the very zenith of bronze production from the early Western Zhou period. Crisply cast in extraordinary detail, with swirling dragons, geometric snakes and crisp raised flanges, the present vessel still whispers of the visual language of the fallen Shang while imbued with an unrivaled sense of vitality and magnificence, rarely seen in the more rigid designs on many of its forbears. While ritual food vessels, such as the present gui, continued to be used for practical ritual purposes in the Western Zhou – and indeed were embraced by an ever-growing class of local elites – their ownership soon began to represent something more than mere practicality. Owning and inscribing a set of vessels for one’s clan, displaying them in one’s temple and, finally, taking them with you to the grave, ritual bronzes played a crucial social function as symbols of majesty, wealth and power.

It is inscribed with a rare clan sign – its pronunciation now lost to history – depicting a figure kneeling beside a ritual vessel (fig. 1). To date, only one other surviving vessel bearing this extraordinary mark appears to be recorded: a bronze jue preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing; its inscription recorded with a rubbing in Yinzhou jinwen jicheng [Compendium of Yin and Zhou bronze inscriptions], vol. 5, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 2007, p. 4103, no. 07381 (fig. 2).

Surviving examples of any form featuring this striking design of elephant-dragons and serpent scrolls appear to be extremely rare and have no known counterparts in the earlier Shang or later Eastern Zhou periods; see Jessica Rawson, Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. IIA, Washington, 1990, p. 37; and related designs in figs 35, 36, 38 and 39.

For extant gui of this design, compare a very similar example excavated from a Western Zhou tomb site at Zhuyuangou near Baoji in Shaanxi province, illustrated in Wenwu, 1983:2, pl. 2, fig. 2, with rubbings of the main design, p. 8, fig. 25:2; another from the collection of Axel Jonsson, Gothenburg, was included in the exhibition Early Chinese Bronzes, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 1993, pl. XI, fig. 1; and a third, with horned kui dragons to the foot, sold from the collection of Richard C. Bull in our New York rooms, 6^th December 1983, lot 19.

Compare also a closely related gui with a matching square base, also with confronting elephant-dragons, excavated at Gaojiabao, Jingyang County in 1971 and preserved in the Shaanxi History Museum, illustrated in Li Xixing, ed., The Shaanxi Bronzes, Xi’an, 1994, pl. 59; another gui of this type sold in our New York rooms, 22nd and 23rd September 2004, lot 110; and another sourced from Yamanaka & Co. and the C. Ruxton Love Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2007, lot 204.

Ironically, while the painted reference information on the vessel’s foot misattributes its production to an earlier period, it may nonetheless prove useful to present-day connoisseurs in uncovering details of the piece’s more recent provenance. Mostly out of use in Western academic circles by the the 1940s, following the excavation of the Shang capital – Yinxu – in 1928, the reference to the ‘Shang-Yin’ dynasty and accompanying reference number strongly suggest that the piece was already recorded or loaned to an institution in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

此件西周早期青銅簋自上世紀即藏於歐洲私人舊藏，為該時期青銅藝術之極致代表。全器鑄造精細，飾以回旋式螭龍、幾何蟠蛇與峻峭凸棱，工藝卓絕，所呈視覺語彙仍保留商代遺緒，卻又蘊含勃勃生機與莊嚴氣象，遠勝多見於早期青銅器中較為刻板之風格。在西周時期，青銅簋仍具備實際祭祀功能，為貴族用以盛食之禮器，然其功能意涵已逐漸超越實用層面。隨著地方貴族階層興起，青銅禮器亦逐漸成為彰顯宗族地位、財力與權勢之象徵。擁有、鑄銘、於宗廟陳設，乃至隨葬墓中，簋之存在不僅體現對祖先的敬奉，亦構成社會結構與禮制文化之核心標誌。

就紋飾風格觀之，此器所施之象首耳獸與蟠蛇圖紋，尤為少見，於傳世與出土器中罕有匹敵，其設計未見於商代亦未延續至東周，可資比較者寥寥。參見 Jessica Rawson 所著《Western Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections》，卷 IIA，華盛頓，1990年，頁37；相關圖紋見圖版35、36、38與39。

具體可比之例，包括出土於陝西寶雞竹園溝西周墓地之近似簋器，著錄於《文物》1983年。第2期，圖版2，圖2；及拓片例圖見頁8，圖25:2。另見 Axel Jonsson 舊藏一例，曾展於瑞典斯德哥爾摩東方博物館舉辦之《Early Chinese Bronzes》特展，1993年，圖版XI，圖1；亦可參見Richard C Bull所藏的一件，1983年12月6日售於紐約蘇富比，編號19。

另可比一例形制相近、同飾對稱象首龍紋，並具方形座之簋，1971年出土於陝西涇陽高家堡，現藏於陝西歷史博物館，見李希興主編《陝西青銅器》，西安，1994年，圖版59。其他可資參考者，尚包括2004年9月22–23日紐約蘇富比拍賣，編號110；以及2007年9月19日紐約佳士得拍賣，編號204，該器原為山中商會與 C. Ruxton Love 收藏。

有趣者為本器器足下部之舊塗標記，雖誤斷為商代，然所書「商殷」字樣與參考編號或可作為追溯其近代流傳脈絡之重要線索。由於此類標注在西方學術界自1928年殷墟發掘後逐漸不再使用，可推測本器早於20世紀初即為機構收藏、編錄或展出，尤具文獻與歷史價值。