Page 10 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Aubrey House William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY 女士藏品
Lots 101 - 102
101
A RARE ARCHAIC BRONZE GOURD-SHAPED VASE AND collection of Chinese ceramics, including 355 lots, was sold over two
COVER, HU days and Sir Percival David acquired a significant part, now in the
Eastern Zhou Dynasty British Museum.
The bulbous flask-shaped body supported on a simulated rope-twist
foot, rising to a straight neck slightly curved on one side, intricately Gourd-shaped vessels resembling this vessel have been excavated
cast with two registers around the body and another below the mouth in Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces, which were among the
rim decorated with the ‘coiling snake’ panhui motifs, set on one side territories ruled by the Jin and Wei. Such vessels were used for
with a bar handle in the form of a snake attached to the body with two containing wine and it is notable that the design is rare compared with
rope-twist rings and with a loose interlinked chain secured to the tail more common wine-vessel forms such as gu. Excavations in early
of the bird-shaped cover, the cover naturalistically cast as a bird with Warring States tombs have only revealed one such vessel within a
well detailed wing feathers bordered with archaistic scrolls, the sharp large burial, suggesting that such vessels reflected the noble status of
beak opening to form the aperture of the vessel, the bird grasping two the deceased.
serpents in its claws.
33cm (13in) high. (2). Compare with a similar gourd-shaped vessel and cover,
Warring States, decorated with three registers of panhui motifs
£40,000 - 60,000 around the body, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, (acc.
CNY310,000 - 470,000 no.GuTong000024N000000000); and another excavated in 1988 at
Jinshen village, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, now in the Shanxi Museum,
東周 蟠虺紋匏壺 see Zhongguo meishu fenlei quanji. Zhongguo qingtong tongqi quanji
8. Dongzhou 2, Beijing, 1995, pp.73-74, nos.81-83. See also other
similar excavated examples in the Shaanxi Museum of History and the
Provenance: Mark Dineley (1901-1975) Sackler Gallery of Art illustrated in ibid., pp.75-76, nos.84-85.
Peter Dineley (1938-2018), and thence by descent
For an example of this rare type in the Arthur Sackler collection,
來源：Mark Dineley（1901-1975年）舊藏 see Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler
Peter Dineley（1938-2018年）舊藏，並由後人保存迄今 Collection, Washington D.C., 1995, pp.236-239, no.39. The author
suggests that this type of vessel was a ‘short-lived type which
Mark Dineley and his son Peter Cleverly Dineley collected antique appeared toward the end of the eighth century BC and disappeared
arms and armour, Chinese, Tibetan and Nepalese art amongst by the early fifth century BC, and illustrates a closely related example
other interests. The collections were displayed in the former family formerly in the collection of Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, now in the Metropolitan
home, Aubrey House, located in Holland Park, London - a stately Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.1949.135.9), illustrated ibid., p.238,
18th century house. The house came into the Dineley family when fig.39.1.
it was acquired in 1873 by William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916)
from whom Mark and Peter were descended. W.C. Alexander was Following the trend for archaism in the 18th century, and especially
a banker and a great connoisseur and patron of the artist James during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, vessels such as the present
McNeill Whistler, as well as a renowned collector of Chinese ceramics, lot became the model for other gourd-shaped vessels in various
jade and Japanese art, much of which is now in the British Museum, other media such as jade and cloisonné enamel. See for example, a
London, including the celebrated Northern Song Alexander bowl. He cloisonné enamel vase of similar form to the present lot, Qianlong, in
was amongst the lenders to exhibitions held at the Burlington Fine the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (acc.no.B6OP286).
Arts Club in 1895, 1896 and 1910 and to the City of Manchester Art
Gallery’s Exhibition of Chinese Applied Art in 1913, and to exhibitions
held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In May 1931 his

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
8 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.