Page 186 - Sotheby's Important Chinese Art, Sept. 21-22, 2-21, NYC

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A RARE AND LARGE FRAGMENTARY GILT- elaborate lamp in the form of a goose eating a fish, see an
BRONZE FIGURE OF A GOOSE example in the National Museum of China, Beijing, illustrated
HAN DYNASTY in Compendium of Chinese Art Bronzes, Taipei, 1993, pl.
1151. Compare also other smaller bird-form vessels, such
comprising four finely cast gilt-bronze components and a as a pair of lamp supports, included in A Selection from the
later-added Perspex body, the bird with elongated S-curved Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of
neck and an elegantly tapering beak, the eyes indicated by China, Beijing, 1973, pl. 235, or a single standing figure of a
a pair of recessed circles, all supported on a pair of sturdy bird, exhibited in Archaeological Treasures Excavated in the
webbed feet, with an upturned tail fanned out (5) People’s Republic of China, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo,
Height 17½ in., 44.5 cm 1973, cat. no. 80.
For other freestanding figures of animals of comparable
PROVENANCE size, refer to a gilt-bronze mythical beast sold in our
A & J Speelman Ltd., London, 29th March 1996. London rooms, 16th June 1998, lot 4, and a bronze ox in
The present figure is notable for its fine casting, superb the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated in Wang Tao, Chinese
gilding, and large size. Geese are symbols of loyalty and Bronzes from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 2009,
discipline, and goose-form lamps and vessels were especially pl. 152. Han period pottery figures of ducks or geese also
popular during the Han dynasty. survive; compare one similarly modeled to the present, sold
Compare a goose-form zun in the collection of the Brooklyn in our London rooms, 10th December 1984, lot 537.
Museum, New York, with similarly cast tail and feet but with For Qin-era precursors to Han dynasty bronze figures of
a downturned neck and stylized face, illustrated in Christian geese, refer to the 46 life-size bronze waterfowl excavated
Deydier, Chinese Bronzes, New York, 1980, pl. 79. A goose- from Pit K0007 of the Qin Mausoleum, Shaanxi province.
form censer with a pierced cover was excavated from
Sanzhaocun, Yanta District, Xi’an, exhibited in Everlasting $ 30,000-50,000
Like the Heavens: The Cultures and Art of the Zhou, Qin,
Han, and Tang, Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing, 漢 銅鎏金鴻雁殘部
2019, p. 333. An example of this type of censer was sold
at Christie’s London, 15th May 2014, lot 1049. For a more 來源：
A & J Speelman Ltd.， 倫敦，1996年3月29日

182 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N10748 IMPORTANT CHINESE ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF BRUCE DAYTON AND RUTH STRICKER DAYTON 183