Page 130 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

234 A RARE GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE MYTHICAL BEAST
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY
西漢 銅錯金銀瑞獸

the powerful feline cast coiled with its head turned sharply round, detailed with the ears folded flat at the sides above a short
mane, its large eyes set under curving brows above a short nose, its neck encircled by a studded collar, its sinuous body
extending to a long tail curled under its stretched rear leg, with fine gold and silver inlay defining the details

Width 5 in., 12.8 cm
$ 60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE 來源
C.T. Loo, Paris, 15th January 1936. 盧芹齋，巴黎，1936年1月15日
Collection of Martine Marie Pol, Comtesse de Béhague 貝阿格女伯爵 Martine Marie Pol (1870-1939) 收藏
(1870-1939). 加奈侯爵 Hubert Octave (1888-1974) 收藏
Collection of Hubert Octave, Marquis de Ganay (1888- Hôtel Drouot，巴黎，1952年5月7日，編號59
1974). 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7th May 1952, lot 59.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Solidly cast in the form of a coiled feline beast, depicted with its legs spreading and its body pressed tightly close to
the ground, the present lot belongs to a small group of free standing bronze beasts from the Han dynasty, of which
the function is yet to be discovered. The present beast is notable for its heavy weight and the low gravity design,
which may suggest it was possibly functioned as a weight or a support.

Related examples are identified as weights, including a gilt-bronze lion of a smaller size, modeled in a very similar
posture with the tail curling under its rear leg, attributed to the Western Han dynasty, from the Anthony Hardy
Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 16th September 2010, lot 905; and a bronze tiger, from the collection of H.
Ginsberg, exhibited in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst [Exhibition of Chinese Art], Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 69, where it
was also described as a weight.

Upon closer examination, a small aperture is visible near the right rear leg of the present animal, which suggests
its possible function as a support. Bronze mythical beasts of a similar form are known as supports of Han dynasty
censers. See for example a gilt-bronze mythical creature, modeled in the form of a panlong, similarly crouching with
legs spreading and tail curled, supporting a stemmed and a censer, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, published
in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan qingtongjuan [Compendium of Chinese art. Bronzes], Taipei, 1993, no. 1156; and
two in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pls
203 and 205.

細觀本品，其右後腿旁有一小孔，或說明本品原亦可能為
本品瑞獸，鑄工堅實，錯紋精良，作虎形，蜷伏盤踞，四
基座。漢代香爐底座多見相類造型之瑞獸。例見一銅鎏
腿伸張，伏身於地，屬於一小類漢代銅瑞獸例，其功用尚
金瑞獸，蟠龍造型，同樣伏腿蜷尾，頂端連柄與香爐，
待考證。本品獨特之處在於重量十足，且重心甚低，可能
上海博物館藏，載於《中國文物精華大全•青銅卷》，
用作銅鎮或基座。
台北，1993年，編號1156；另外兩例為東京出光美術館
相關作例有被定為鎮者，包括一銅鎏金獅例，尺寸較小， 收藏，圖載於《中国の工芸 : 出光美術館藏品図錄》，東
姿態相若，尾盤後腿，斷代西漢，出自Anthony Hardy 京，1989年，圖版203及205。
收藏，2010年9月16日售於紐約佳士得，編號905；
以及H. Ginsberg收藏銅虎，1929年於《Ausstellung
Chinesischer Kunst》展出，柏林，編號69。

128 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA II