2006.170.121: Wine beaker (gu)
Vessels
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2006.170.121
- Title
- Wine beaker (gu)
- Other Titles
- Original Language Title: 商 灰陶觚
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- vessel
- Date
- 16th-14th century BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: East Asia, China
- Period
- Shang dynasty, c. 1600-c. 1050 BCE
- Culture
- Chinese
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/176659
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Gray earthenware
- Dimensions
- H. 26.2 x Diam. 10.5 cm (10 5/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- [Christie's, New York, 21 September 2000, lot 219] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2000-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art
- Accession Year
- 2006
- Object Number
- 2006.170.121
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
- Description
- Beaker of tall, slender form with flared mouth, and lightly flared pedestal foot with three small tabs encircling the perimeter; lower body encircled by grooved bands; lightly burnished gray earthenware. Vessels of this form became popular for wine drinking in the Shang dynasty and may be based on an Erlitou culture (1900-1500 BCE) prototype.
- Commentary
-
Compare to:
(1) Black pottery gu vessel excavated in 1960 from a Shang stratum at Maqiao, Shanghai municipality, now in the Shanghai Museum collection. See Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art, René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, ed. (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and Shanghai: Shanghai Museum, 1983), cat. 12, pp. 72 and 149.
(2) Gray pottery gu vessel excavated from an Erlitou site. See Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan kaogu yanjiusuo [Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences], Erlitou taoci jicui [Cream of the Pottery from Erlitou] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1995), 44, pl. 7.
Publication History
- Fine Chinese Ceramics, Paintings, and Works of Art, auct. cat., Christie's, New York (New York, September 21, 2000), lot 219
Subjects and Contexts
- Sedgwick Collection
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu