Page 58 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Image courtesy of the Cernuschi Museum, Paris Image courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei

This rare zoomorphic vessel is based on ancient prototypes which The name xizun appears in both the Bo gu tu, compiled during the
originated from at least as early as the Western Zhou dynasty. Tapir- Northern Song dynasty, and the ‘Catalogue of the Antiquities in the
form bronze vessels of this type began to appear in greater numbers Xiqing Pavilion’, Xiqing gu jian, compiled in the eighteenth century.
in the Eastern Zhou dynasty; compare with a tapir-form vessel, Spring The word xi meaning ‘sacrificial victim’, often refers to an ox or another
and Autumn or Warring States period, finely inlaid with gold and silver animal.
geometric designs, illustrated in Masterworks of Chinese Bronze in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1969, pl.25. Vessels shaped as tapirs are often dated to the Yuan and Ming
dynasties. See, for example, a related bronze ‘tapir’ vessel inlaid with
The examples from the Bronze Age appear to have found favour gold and silver, Yuan dynasty, from the collection of the Saint Louis Art
with the Northern Song Emperor Huizong (reigned 1100-1126), who Museum, Saint Louis (acc.no.273:1919), illustrated by P.K.Hu, Later
was a very keen antiquarian and who instigated the publication of Chinese Bronzes: The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert E. Kresko
illustrated catalogues of the items in his collection. One of these, the Collections, St. Louis, 2008, p.45, fig.3, and another Ming dynasty
‘Xuanhe Illustrated Collection of Antiques’ Xuanhe Bogu tulu, included example, similarly inlaid in gold and silver, in the collection of the
an illustration of such an early bronze vessel. While the original Cernuschi Museum, Paris, acc.no.M.C.583.
edition would not have been readily available to later craftsmen, it
was reprinted on a number of occasions, and the illustration of this A related gold and silver-inlaid bronze tapir-form vessel, Yuan/Ming
zoomorphic vessel appears, for example, in the 1528 edition, known dynasty, was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 September 2020, lot
as the Bogu tulu. 1538.

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