each side pierced with a cross between two taotie masks set with raised eyes divided by notched flanges on the central bulb and a semi-taotie panel around the foot, the base interior inscribed with a two-character pictogram

Hirano Kotoken, Tokyo, 1976.

Similar gu vessels are illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington DC, 1987, pls 25-27. See another example with a three-character pictogram in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Wu Zhenfeng, Shangzhou qingtongqi mingwen ji tuxiang jicheng [Compendium of inscriptions and images of bronzes from Shang and Zhou dynasties], Shanghai, 2012, no. 09195; and a slightly shorter gu vessel with similar zoomorphic masks and pictogram, sold in our New York rooms, 6th December 1989, lot 21, and again at Christie's New York, 20th March 2014, lot 2007.