A SOAPSTONE GUI, MING DYNASTY
The stone of intense ochre color with a superb natural patina, deeply carved to depict scaly dragon handles and a yin-yang medallion on each side below a key fret border. Two-character inscription to base.

Provenance: Property from the estate of Countess Zichy Mihaline (from before 1929 until 1946). Acquired by a Hungarian private collector from the above at Buda Castle in 1946 and kept in the same family ever since.
Published: Exhibition of Oriental Art (Ausstellung Orientalischer Kunst), Budapest, 1929, Karl Csanyi und Zoltan Takacs, lot 308.
Condition: Some old chipping to rim and few natural flaws to the mineral.

Weight: 542.1 grams
Dimensions: Length 15.4 cm

Originally, the Gui was a bowl-shaped ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessel used to hold offerings of food, mostly grain, for ancestral tombs. These vessels had a revival during the earlier Ming dynasty and became very popular in bronze, pottery, and sometimes jade or soapstone. The shape changed somewhat over the centuries, but constant characteristics are a circular form with a wide profile from the side, standing on a narrower rim or foot. They usually have two handles.

Auction result comparison: Compare with a related archaistic soapstone vessel from The Erich Heinrich collection, Berlin, sold at Christies London, November 9th, 2010, in Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, lot 95.

明代皂石龍首雙耳簋
天然包漿，夾雜著紅褐色紋理，兩面各有一個陰陽符號紋飾，底部刻兩字

來源：Zichy Mihaline (1929年前至1946年)伯爵夫人遺產。一位匈牙利藏家于1946年在佈達堡上述遺產收藏中購得，並保留至今。
出版：Exhibition of Oriental, Budapest, 1929, Karl Csanyi und Zoltan Takacs, lot 308.
品相：邊緣處一些老磕碰，天然紋理瑕疵

重量：542.1 克
尺寸：長 15.4 厘米