gui-shaped vessel with recumbent deer

Yan Yihe, artist

late Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

gui-shaped vessel with recumbent deer, late 1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: jade; coral; pewter

Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial

Accession number: 1928.1130.a,b,c

Not on display

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Civic Leader and Art Collector: Sallie Casey Thayer and an Art Museum for KU

Late 19th-century interest in ancient China significantly informed this unusual pewter vessel, which combines various sources. The shape of the vessel approximates an ancient ritual tureen that was widely used during the Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE–256 BCE) for ancestor worship. Along the rim of the lid is an inscription written in an archaic Chinese script that usually appeared on ritual bronze vessels dating to as early as the 10th century BCE. The lid features a recumbent deer holding in its mouth a coral scepter shaped like a magic mushroom—a talisman of good luck closely associated with popular Daoist beliefs. However, while the vessel mimics bronze, it is made of pewter, a tin-based alloy. The unusual combination of features suggest that this vessel may have been a showpiece meant to pique the interest of Western consumers such as Sallie Casey Thayer.

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