Page 14 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Image courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei Illustration of a bronze tapir from the Xuanhe Bogu tulu
(Xuanhe Illustrated Collection of Antiques)

Mark Dineley and his son Peter Cleverly Dineley collected antique The examples from the Bronze Age appear to have found favour
arms and armour, Chinese, Tibetan and Nepalese art amongst other with the Northern Song Emperor Huizong (reigned 1100-1126), who
interests. The collections were displayed in the former family home, was a very keen antiquarian and who instigated the publication of
Aubrey House, located in Holland Park, London - a stately 18th illustrated catalogues of the items in his collection. One of these - the
century house. The house came into the Dineley family when it was Xuanhe Bogu tulu (Xuanhe Illustrated Collection of Antiques)- included
acquired in 1873 by William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) from an illustration of such an early bronze vessel. While the original
whom Mark and Peter were descended. Alexander was a banker and edition would not have been readily available to later craftsmen, it
a great connoisseur and patron of the artist James McNeill Whistler, as was reprinted on a number of occasions, and the illustration of this
well as a renowned collector of Chinese ceramics, jade and Japanese zoomorphic vessel appears, for example, in the 1528 edition, known
art, much of which is now in the British Museum, London, including as the Bogu tulu.
the celebrated Northern Song Alexander bowl. He was amongst the
lenders to exhibitions held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1895, The popularity of these zoomorphic vessels continued into the Yuan
1896 and 1910 and to the City of Manchester Art Gallery’s Exhibition and Ming periods. See a related bronze ‘tapir’ vessel inlaid with
of Chinese Applied Art in 1913, and to exhibitions held at the Victoria gold and silver, Yuan dynasty, in the collection of the Saint Louis Art
and Albert Museum, London. In May 1931 his collection of Chinese Museum, Saint Louis (acc.no.273:1919), illustrated by P.K.Hu, Later
ceramics, including 355 lots, was sold over two days and Sir Percival Chinese Bronzes: The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert E. Kresko
David acquired a significant part, now in the British Museum. Collections, St. Louis, 2008, p.45, fig.3, and another Ming dynasty
example, similarly inlaid in gold and silver, in the collection of the
This rare zoomorphic vessel illustrates the scholar’s interest in antiquity Cernuschi Museum, Paris, acc.no.M.C.583.
and especially in ancient bronzes. Bronze vessels of this form with
inlaid silver and gold decoration are based on ancient prototypes A related gold and silver-inlaid bronze tapir-form vessel, Yuan/Ming
which originated as early as the Western Zhou dynasty. Tapir-form dynasty, was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 September 2020, lot
bronze vessels of this type began to appear in greater numbers in the 1538.
Eastern Zhou dynasty, see for example a tapir-form vessel featuring
intricate inlay, Spring and Autumn or Warring States period, illustrated
in Masterworks of Chinese Bronze in the National Palace Museum,
National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, pl.25.

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