Page 162 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

246 AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE INSCRIBED BRONZE PAPERWEIGHT
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY OR LATER
東周或更晚 青銅瑞獸紋鎮紙

the ring base crisply cast to the top in low relief with a continuous band of intertwined dragons, centered by three struts
arranged in a Y-shaped formation, each decorated with pairs of short diagonal striations divided by a vertical line, all
surmounted by a buckle modeled in the form of a tortoise-like mythical beast with an uplifted tail and a snake coiled on
its shell, with its body forming a rectangle decorated with two bands of key fret, the beast clasping and biting on a further
rectangle set to the front with a raised long-snouted mythical creature head, the underside inscribed with a eight-character
inscription reading shuX jiangXX zuo zhenzhi (paperweight made by Jiang XX)

Length 5⅞ in., 15 cm
$ 30,000-50,000

PROVENANCE 來源
C.T. Loo, New York, 2nd August 1954. 盧芹齋，紐約，1954年8月2日
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏
EXHIBITED 展覽
Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C.T. Loo & Co., New York, 《Exhibition of Chinese Arts》，盧芹齋，紐約，1941年，
1941, cat. no. 157. 編號157

The present lot is a mysterious object made by combining a belt buckle-form fitting on top of a circular ring with three
struts. The bottom part resembles a type of ancient harness fitting, such as one in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
attributed to the late Zhou dynasty, illustrated in Museum van aziatische kunst in het rijksmuseum Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, 1962, cat. no. 21; and another, attributed to the Han dynasty, sold in our London rooms, 17th November 1970.

Apart from the present lot, two other nearly identical examples are known. One from the Eugene Fuller Memorial
Collection, now in the Seattle Art Museum, catalogued as a harness buckle and attributed to the late Spring and
Autumn period to early Warring States period, is illustrated in Michael Knight, Early Chinese Metalwork in the
Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1989, p. 23, no. 12, where the author notes its design in association
with the foundries at Houma, Shanxi province. The other from the collection of W. van der Mandele, illustrated in
H.F.E. Visser, Asiatic Art in Private Collections of Holland and Belgium, New York, 1952, pl. 32, no. 66, where the author
states that it is probably an archaistic piece in the style of the late Zhou period.

While the date and function of these objects remains surrounded in mystery, the present lot is in fact inscribed to the
underside, while the other two examples are not, with an eight-character inscription in dazhuan (large seal script),
identifying it as a paperweight. The inscription on the present lot further perplexes the identification and attribution
of these objects, as no other bronze paperweights of this form or style from ancient China appear to be recorded,
which may suggest a possible post-archaic attribution.

本品上部如帶鉤形部件，下部則為一環，環間三柱，甚 Knight，《Early Chinese Metalwork in the Collection
為奇特罕見。其下部似青銅當盧，荷蘭國立博物館收藏 of the Seattle Art Museum》，西雅圖，1989年，頁23
一相類當盧例，斷代周代晚期，圖載於《Museum van ，編號12。其二出自W. van der Mandele收藏，圖載於
aziatische kunst in het rijksmuseum Amsterdam》， H.F.E. Visser，《Asiatic Art in Private Collections of
阿姆斯特丹，1962年，編號21；另一例斷代漢朝，售於倫 Holland and Belgium》，紐約，1952年，圖版32，編號
敦蘇富比1970年11月17日。 66，作者認為該例乃仿周末風格而作。

除本品外，目前已知另有兩例與本品近同，其一出自 此類器之功用至今未明，而且斷代困難，上述兩例均無
Eugene Fuller收藏，現存於西雅圖藝術博物館，圖錄記 款，然而本品底部則鑄有大篆銘文，記明本品為鎮紙，而
述其為馬具，斷代春秋晚期至戰國早期，圖載於Michael 目前尚未見有相類風格之銅鎮，故此亦不排除本品為仿古
之作。

160 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA II