Page 43 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

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AN UNUSUAL BRONZE FELINE-FORM WEIGHT
EASTERN ZHOU-HAN DYNASTY, 5TH CENTURY BC-3RD CENTURY AD

The fgure is fnely cast in the round in a coiled position with the legs realistically
rendered and the body softly rounded. There is a soft brown patina and there are tiny
patches of encrustation.
2º in. (5.7 cm.) across

$2,000-3,000

PROVENANCE

The Falk Collection, New York, before 1970.
The Falk Collection I; Christie’s New York, 16 October 2001, lot 192.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

LITERATURE

E. C. Bunker et al., “Animal Style” Art from East to West, The Asia Society, New York,
1970, p. 92, no. 67.

The mate to this weight, which has been described as a sleeve weight, is illustrated
by S. H. Hansford, Chinese Central Asian and Luristan Bronzes and Chinese Jades
and Sculpture: The Seligman Collection of Oriental Art, London, 1957, vol. I, pl. XLVIII
(A103). Compare the very similar gilt-bronze coiled feline, dated Eastern Zhou,
4th-3rd century BC, illustrated by J. Wirgin (ed.) in The Ernest Erickson Collection in
Swedish Museums, Stockholm, 1989, p. 41, no. 39, where the present fgure is cited.
The design is compared to Scythian antecedents, especially the coiled feline body,
and the rendering of the mouth and round eyes.

東周/漢 青銅獸形鎮

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