Gorgeous ancient chinese Jade -::- Ritual grain server

      


China, early Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 1045 BCE
Bronze
Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer
F1968.29

Richly decorated containers were used in ritual banquets to honor ancestors. This gui, cast with an inscription acknowledging the Taibao's role in suppressing a rebellion that threatened the very existence of the royal house, would have been a family treasure for generations.

Based on events chronicled in the inscription inside the container, this is one of the earliest dateable bronzes from the Zhou dynasty. The translated inscription reads:

The king attacked Luzi Sheng and suppressed his rebellion. The king sent down the campaign command to the Taibao who was respectful and free of error. The king immortalized the Taibao, granting him lands at Song. [The Taibao] uses this vessel to respond to the command.

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Posted in: chinese jade,chinese sculpture,chinese statue,jade china,jade in chinese

£18million-worth of ancient Chinese artifacts has stolen

The mob got away with 18 precious pieces including six from the Ming Dynasty, mainly in jade.

The robbery at Cambridge’s famous Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the city’s university, came less than two weeks after jade artefacts valued at £1.8million were nicked from Durham University’s museum.

It is feared organised crime syndicates are targeting Chinese art collections in the UK to sell to rich foreign buyers on the black market.

Art crime rakes in £3.7billion a year, making it the world’s third highest grossing illegal enterprise behind only drug and arms trafficking.

And booming China’s art market has become the globe’s biggest. Expert Dick Ellis said: “There are mountains of money being thrown at it.”- The Sun

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Posted in: jade stolen