Xing Hou gui

Description

Bronze vessel of the type called gui. This vessel is known as the Xing Hou gui based on its inscription. It has a rounded body constricted at the neck; deeply curving sides are complemented by four handles. An intaglio cicada is located opposite each handle. Each of the four compartments of the vessel's surfaces is filled with a fabulous creature that seems to have been based upon an elephant; it has a long trunk and two roundels above its head, suggesting the bumps on an elephant's forehead. Other features are taken from traditional bronze motifs, including quills used for its limbs and a spiralling ridge on its body derived perhaps from the earlier coiled dragon. Production date: 1050BC-771BC (circa) Museum number: 1936,1118.2 © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. See: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1936-1118-2