Object: Ritual grain server (gui) with square base and masks, dragons, and birds F1938.20

Classification: Vessel

Historical period(s): Early Western Zhou dynasty, ca. late 11th-early 10th century BCE

Object Date: ca. late 11th-early 10th century BCE

Medium: Bronze

Dimension(s): H x W x D: 28.1 x 34 x 24.4 cm (11 1/16 x 13 3/8 x 9 5/8 in)

Origin: China

Credit Line: Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

Collection: Freer Gallery of Art Collection

Accession Number: F1938.20

Provenance: From at least 1935
Otto Burchard & Co., Berlin, from at least 1935 [1]

1935
Sale, Berlin, Paul Graupe, Die Bestände der Firma Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., Berlin, in Liquidation: Chinesische Kunst: I. Teil, March 22, 1935, lot 275, pl. 26 [2]

From 1935 to probably 1937
Hans Georg Oeder (died 1937), Priemern, Altmark, Germany, purchased on his behalf by Arthur Abt at Graupe's sale, March 22, 1935 [3]

From 1937
C. T. Loo & Company, Paris and New York from at least November 1937 [4]

From 1938
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company, New York on December 29, 1938 [5]

Notes:

[1] See Paul Graupe, Berlin, Die Bestände der Firma Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., Berlin in Liquidation: Chinesische Kunst: I. Teil, sale cat. (Berlin: Paul Graupe, March 22-23, 1935), p. 39, lot 275, pl. 26. Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., a gallery devoted to Chinese art, was founded by Otto Burchard (1892-1965) in Berlin in 1927 as a part of the Margraf Concern, an art trade firm based in Berlin. In 1929, the Margraf Concern was acquired by Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer. See Patrizia Jirka-Schmitz, "Otto Burchard (1892-1965), Von Finanz-Dada zum Grandseigneur des Pekinger Kunsthandels," Mitteilungen Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst 12, 2 (July 1995), p. 28, note 24.

[2] The sale was one of a series of three auctions during January through April 1935, in which the Margraf Concern, property of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, was liquidated. See also Klaus Schrenk, "Das Gemälde 'Bildnis der Marchesa Veronica Spinola Doria' von Peter Paul Rubens und die Chronologie einer Rückforderung," in Beiträge öffentlicher Einrichtungen des Bundesrepublik Deutschland zum Umgang mit Kulturgütern aus ehemaligen jüdischen Besitz, ed. Ulf Häder (Magdeburg: Veröffentlichungen der Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste, 2001), pp. 150-59 and Esther Tisa Francini, Anja Heuss, and Georg Kreis, Flucht - Raubgut: Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933-1945 und die Frage der Restitution (Zurich: Chronos, 2001), p. 42. For more information on the fate of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer see http://www.lostart.de/nn_41804/Webs/DE/Provenienz/JuedischeSammler/Eintrag,lv2=60580,lv3=63116.html.

[3] According to Patrizia Jirka-Schmitz, "Otto Burchard (1892-1965), Von Finanz-Dada zum Grandseigneur des Pekinger Kunsthandels," Mitteilungen Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst 12, 2 (July 1995), pp. 32-33. See also Bernhard Karlgren, "Yin and Chou in Chinese Bronzes," in Yin and Chou Researches (Stockholm: The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 1935), p. 84, E40, pl. XII, where the vessel is listed as in "Oeder Collection."

[4] See Loo's stockcard no. LAP 5901: "Bronze incense-burner on a square stand, 6th cent. B.C.," C. T. Loo & Frank Caro Archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy in object file. According to annotations on the stockcard, the vessel arrived in New York on the S.S. Normandie with Loo in November 1937 and was brought to the Freer Gallery for approval in December 1937. It appears on C. T. Loo's Approval List, dated December 2, 1937, listed under no. LAP 5901 as "Large bronze Yu with square base," copy in object file.

[5] See C. T. Loo's invoice, issued by the New York gallery, dated December 29, 1938, copy in object file. The object is listed in the invoice as "Bronze sacral vessel of the type tui. Chinese, Chou." Loo stated at the time of the purchase that he had acquired the vessel in China, see John E. Lodge's curatorial remark, 1939, in object file. Lodge noted that Loo "said that he had got it [the vessel] in China and this could be true. In 1935, however, Karlgren published … an inscribed kuei belonging to Rittergutsbesitzer H. G. Oeder (of Priemern, Seehausen, Altmark, Germany) which, as nearly as I can tell from the reproduction, is almost certainly this one,--- my only serious doubt, indeed, arising from the negative evidence of Karlgren's failure to read the second character in the inscription." In July 2000, the Freer Gallery of Art received a claim asserting that the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer were the rightful owners of the vessel. With the cooperation and assistance of the family, the Smithsonian researched the history of the vessel and discovered that it had been sold in the auction in Berlin in 1935. In November 2002, the Oppenheimer heirs and the Smithsonian Institution reached an agreement regarding the ownership of the vessel by which it remains in the museum collection.

Previous owner(s): Otto Burchard & Co.
Mr. Hans Georg Oeder (died 1937)
C.T. Loo & Company (1914-1948)

Description: Ceremonial vessel, type "kuei."
Thin, scattered malachite and cuprite patination inside and out. Inscription of eleven characters inside.

Inscription(s): Inscription of eleven characters inside.

Past label text: 1. (Jenny So, Gallery XIV, April 1991)

Ritual grain container on a pedestal, gui
China, Hunan Province
Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 1000 B.C.
Bronze with cast decoration, inscribed
Purchase F1938.20

The simplicity of the round bowl is almost completely overshadowed by the flamboyant handles, high square pedestal, and exuberant decoration. The short inscription of eleven characters on the interior -- stating that the vessel was made exclusively to entertain royalty -- declares unequivocally the esteemed status of such bronzes.

Curatorial Remarks

1. Bought from C.T. Loo & Company, New York. For price, see "Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920."

2. (J.E.L, 1939) When the dealer brought this vessel to the Gallery in the Autumn of 1937, he did not know (or would not tell) where and when it had been excavated; but he said that he had got it in China, and this could be true. In 1935, however, Karlgren published in his admirable Yin and Chou in Chinese Bronzes, an inscribed kuei belonging to Rittergutsbesitzer H. G. Oeder (of Priemern, Seehausen, Altmark, Germany) which, as nearly as I can tell from the reproduction (op. cit., Plate XII), is almost certainly this one, - - - my only serious doubt, indeed, arising from the negative evidence of Karlgren's failure to read the second character in the inscription (op. cit., p. 84, E40), although his reading of the first and third characters (quite commonly found, however, in these dedications) shows them to be the same as the corresponding characters in the inscription given below (see folder sheet). On the whole, therefore, it seems more probable than merely possible that this vessel, whenever and by whomever it may have been taken out of China, was latterly in the Oeder Collection.

3. (Undated folder sheet note) The metal seems to have been originally of a pale golden color which can still be seen in one or two small areas. Patination has nowhere obscured the fine execution of the decorative designs: the whole vessel is, indeed, in remarkably good state of preservation. The various elements of the decoration all suggest an early date, with the possible exception,--in my own experience anyway,-- of the human head introduced between the legs of the bird which forms the lower part of either handle. The mouth of the fabulous beast which forms the upper part of either handle is provided with tusks which look as if they had been broken off short, leaving mere stumps projecting, more or less, beyond the lips. No doubt the tusks were not designed to look as they now do; but since the surfaces of the apparent fractures are confluent in spots, it must be that the actual breaks occurred in the mold,--not in the finished bronze.

4. (Undated folder sheet note) The great elegance of the inscription suggests a date near the end of the early Chou period. The text is as follows: [Chn], and may be translated:
"Po Che-fun made this precious 'chiu'
to be used for offerings when royalty
is formally received."
The second character in the first column may also be read [Chn] "chu." Until fairly recent times, the first character in the second column was regularly transcribed [Chn], and read "tui" (cf., e.g., "T'ao-chai chi chin lu," II; "Hsi Ch'ing ku chien," XXVII-XXVIII; and earlier catalogues); but it is now read "chiu" (as above) by many competent scholars (see, e.g., Lo Chen-yu, "Chen sung t'ang chi ku i wen, passim;" and Kuo Mo-jo, "Yin Chou ch'ing t'ung ch'i ming wen yen chiu," I, "passim"), and this seems, indeed, to be a better transcription of the ancient characters (See Yetts, "The George Eumorfopoulos Collection: Catalogue of the Chinese and Corean Bronzes," etc., I, pp. 44-45). At present, however, the tendency apparently is (cf., e.g., Karlgren, op. cit., "passim") to substitute for "chiu" its ancient homophone [Chn], now pronounced "kuei," and so designates the whole class of vessels to which this one belongs. The last five characters in the second column constitute a phrase which appears also in other bronze inscriptions. Lo Chen-yu (op. cit., VI, p. 12) reads them [Chn]; but Kuo Mo-jo (op. cit., I, p. 49) reads [Chn], and says further (op. cit., I, p. 77), "...[Chn] 'ni tsao' means [Chn] 'ying sung' to welcome and see off...Speaking as one receiving the king, the expression of 'ni tsao' (to welcome and see off) is used." In my reading and translation of this inscription I have followed Kuo Mo-jo.

5. (J.A.P., 1944) A brief discussion of the type name "kuei" with illustrations of the various archaic and modern characters concerned has been published by Yetts in the Illustrated London News, January 22, 1938, Suppl. pl.

6. (J.A.P., 1949) This bronze was examined under the ultraviolet light on May 24. It showed now fluorescent areas.

7. (R.J.G., 1953) Macrograph (7 1/2x) made part of the inscription. Negative and prints in special folder "Bronzes, Inscriptions" in laboratory.

8. (Undated folder sheet note) On July 22, 1965, this object was taken by Mr. Gettens and Mr. Amt to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory to be x-rayed; returned the same day.

9. (J.A. Pope, 1968) Attributes this to Early Chou, late 11th-early 10th century B.C.

10. (T. Lawton, 1976) Added word "Western" after Early.

11. (J. Smith per Keith Wilson, 7/1/2008) Vessel added as secondary classification

12. (Dorota Chudzicka per Keith Wilson, 3/16/2009) Changed title from "Ritual vessel (kuei)" to "Ritual grain server (gui) with square base and masks, dragons, and birds."

Published References: Published References are currently unavailable.

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Ritual grain server (gui) with square base and masks, dragons, and birds

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