Expert's note: The current gu is distinguished by its plain ground, a feature that is exceptionally rare among bronze vessels of this type. Most gu from this period are decorated with dense leiwen spirals that fill the background. In contrast, this vessel eschews the conventional leiwen ground, allowing the surface to breathe and the primary decorative elements to emerge with striking clarity. Here, the absence of a patterned ground directs the viewer's attention entirely to the crisply cast and finely modeled taotie masks. This restraint not only enhances the visual impact of the taotie but also accentuates the elegant, attenuated proportions of the vessel's trumpet-shaped profile.

China. The slender waisted form rising from a splayed foot to a flaring mouth, the slightly bulbous midsection cast with two dissembled taotie masks set between bands of sharply raised double bowstrings, above a narrow band of striding kui dragons and a further pair of abstracted taotie.

Provenance:
- Ancient collection of Armand Trampitsch, Paris, France.
- Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, 11 October 1985, Lot 62 (dated Shang dynasty, 13th-11th century BC).
- Collection of Mme. Leblanc, Paris, France, acquired from the above.
- Martin Doustar, Brussels, Belgium, acquired from the above.

Armand Trampitsch (1890-1970) was the son of Carinthian Slovene brewer and industrialist Anton Trampitsch (1860-1940), co-founder of France's second-largest brewery, Brasserie Champigneulles in Nancy. He joined his father's company in 1911 but later sold his share and moved to Paris, where he built a noted collection of archeological finds and works of art. Portions of his large collection were sold at Drouot in Paris in during the 1970s-1990s, including in single-owner sales.

Martin Doustar is a Brussels-based art dealer and collector whose career spans more than two decades. He began his professional journey in the early 2000s with a focus on Modern Art, developing a keen interest in the ways early twentieth-century artists were influenced by 'primitive' art from Africa and Oceania. Over time, his connoisseurship expanded into archaeological and ethnographic fields, with particular expertise in the ancient arts of the Pacific, Africa, and pre-Columbian America, while also encompassing Asian material culture and modern masterpieces. He is the author of numerous scholarly catalogs and has organized thematic exhibitions on a wide range of subjects.

Condition: Very good condition with expected wear, casting irregularities, signs of prolonged burial, encrustations and corrosion, warping, small nicks, light scratches, few minuscule losses, minor old repairs. The vessel with the typical anthracite color, its lustrous metallic surface still visible beneath the rich, naturally grown patina with encrustations of malachite and cuprite.
French Export License: Certificat d'exportation pour un bien culturel, file no. 254582, dated 13 June 2025, has been granted by the Ministre de la culture et de la communication, France. A copy accompanies this lot.

Weight: 649 g
Dimensions: Height 26.3 cm

Gu vessels were used as sacrificial wine receptacles and were among the most important objects used in State rituals during the late Shang dynasty. Although reference to the name gu is frequently found in early ritual texts, it became associated with the present vessel type in the catalogs of antiquities produced by Song dynasty scholars (960-1279). The shape appears to have originated in pottery production of the Neolithic period, which came in various sizes and shapes. The bronze version, however, probably emerged in the Erligang period (c.1510-1460 BC) and became popular during the Yinxu period (1250-1192 BC), when it became an important component of ritual vessels.

While gu vessels produced during the early phases of the Shang dynasty were short and stout, decorated with simple taotie designs merely suggested by eyes amidst linear decoration, the refinement of shape and ornamentation took place towards the later phases of the Shang dynasty, as bronze-casting technique gained in skill and experience. By the time that the Shang capital moved from Zhengzhou to Anyang in Henan Province, gu vessels depicted more detailed taotie designs, which were often complemented with new animal shapes. The present gu belongs to the latter stage of the Shang dynasty. Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections illustrates a series of bronze 'gu' that span this transitional period. In these illustrations one can see the gradual change in the shape from the broader silhouette of the earlier examples, figures 25.1 and 25.2, to the taller and more slender silhouette of the later examples, figures 25.5 and 25.6. Bagley notes that the thickened waist is seen only occasionally during this period. Furthermore, all of these vessels, along with the present lot, share similar cruciform apertures left by the casting process. See Robert W. Bagley in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections vol. 1, 1987, p. 218-219, figs. 25.1-25.6.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related bronze gu with similar taotie masks in relief on a plain ground, dated late Shang period, 21.5 cm high, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, reference number 故銅002108N000000000. Compare a closely related bronze gu with similar taotie masks in relief on a plain ground, dated to the Shang dynasty, Anyang period, 28.5 cm high, in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, accession number
OM-1963-0072, illustrated in Bulletin No. 77, Shang Period Bronzes, 2009, p. 95, no. 19, and earlier in Osvald Siren, Kinas Konst Under Tre Artusenden, vol. I, Stockholm, 1942, col. pl. opposite p. 38. Another gu dated to the late Shang dynasty, ca. 14th-11th century BC, and cast with similar decoration on a plain ground, 29.4 cm high, is illustrated in A Catalogue of Shang Dynasty Bronze Inscriptions, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1995, p. 104, no. 21.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 2851
Price: HKD 252,000 or approx. EUR 29,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A bronze ritual wine vessel, gu, late Shang dynasty, 12th-11th century BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of casting, and motifs with similar taotie masks on a plain background. Note the closely related size (25.8 cm) and inscription.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams London, 13 May 2021, lot 1
Price: GBP 75,250 or approx. EUR 108,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A very rare archaic bronze ritual wine vessel, gu, late Shang dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of casting, and motifs with similar taotie masks on a plain background. Note the closely related size (25.7 cm) as well as the circular bands, plain foot, and inscription.