Ritual grain server (<em>gui</em>) with square base and masks, dragons, and birds
date: label: Date
content: ca. late 11th-early 10th century BCE
label: Period
content: Early Western Zhou dynasty
notes: label: Description
content: Ceremonial vessel, type "kuei."
label: Description
content: Thin, scattered malachite and cuprite patination inside and out. Inscription of eleven characters inside.
label: Inscriptions
content: Inscription of eleven characters inside.
label: Provenance
content: From at least 1935
label: Provenance
content: Otto Burchard & Co., Berlin, from at least 1935 [1]
label: Provenance
content: 1935
label: Provenance
content: 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]
label: Provenance
content: From 1935 to probably 1937
label: Provenance
content: Hans Georg Oeder (died 1937), Priemern, Altmark, Germany, purchased on his behalf by Arthur Abt at Graupe's sale, March 22, 1935 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1937
label: Provenance
content: C. T. Loo & Company, Paris and New York from at least November 1937 [4]
label: Provenance
content: From 1938
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company, New York on December 29, 1938 [5]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Provenance
content: 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."
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: [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."
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: 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."
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Provenance
content: 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.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Clay and Metal: Ancient Chinese Ceramics and Metal (February 25, 1997 to August 9, 2011)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (February 18, 1983 to April 1, 1987)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (June 15, 1982 to September 24, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (March 15, 1982 to June 15, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (March 9, 1981 to March 12, 1982)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Chinese Bronze, Jade, Marble (March 1, 1957 to January 1, 1963)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 14 and 15 (February 25, 1956 to March 1, 1957)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Jade and Bronze (August 26, 1955 to October 25, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, 1955 (October 24, 1955 to February 25, 1956)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, 1945 (January 9, 1945 to August 20, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Ancient Chinese Art, 1944 (December 13, 1944 to May 7, 1946)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Metalwork, 1943 (March 22, 1943 to December 13, 1944)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Metalwork (March 14, 1931 to March 22, 1943)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Otto Burchard & Co.
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Mr. Hans Georg Oeder (died 1937)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: C. T. Loo & Company (1914-1948)
place: label: Origin
content: China
topic: label: Topic
content: casting
label: Topic
content: metal
label: Topic
content: bronze
label: Topic
content: Western Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050 - 771 BCE)
label: Topic
content: China
label: Topic
content: Chinese Art
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1938.20
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Bronze
label: Dimensions
content: 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)