Page 164 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Junkunc Collection

247 AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE GILT-BRONZE DRAGON
SIX DYNASTIES
六朝 銅鎏金龍

well cast in a striding posture, its arched body raised on four powerful limbs terminating in three-clawed paws, trailed by a
long curling tail, the ferocious head detailed with a single horn above protruding eyes and a long upturned snout exposing its
sharp fangs

Length 5½ in., 13.9 cm
$ 100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE 來源
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). 史蒂芬•瓊肯三世（1978年逝）收藏

The present dragon is notable for its arched body and lowered forearms, as if preparing to pounce. Only three other
examples appear to be recorded. One from the Avery Brundage Collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco, attributed to the end of Six Dynasties, is published in Réne-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé ed., Chinese, Korean
and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Tokyo, 1974, pl. 28; the second in the Bristol City Art Gallery,
attributed to probably Wei dynasty, is illustrated in P.J. Donnelly, The Animal in Chinese Art, London, 1968, pl. I-c; the
third attributed to the Han dynasty, was sold in our London rooms, 2nd December 1974, lot 31.

Another type of gilt-bronze dragon from the Six Dynasties, characterized by the slender form and striding posture,
include one from the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, sold in these rooms, 19th March 2019, lot 116; one from the
Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, now in the Harvard Art Museums, included in the exhibition, Grenville L. Winthrop:
Retrospective for a Collector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, cat. no. 54; one in the Nelson-
Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, illustrated in Ross E. Taggart ed., Handbook of the Collection in the William
Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, 1959, p. 176 (bottom right);
and three reputedly discovered at the Jincun tombs in Luoyang, Henan province, in 1928 and documented by Bishop
William Charles White in his book Tombs of Old Lo-yang, Shanghai, 1934, pl. LIV, no. 133.

觀本品龍，作拱身，前爪低伏，如欲縱身而起，頗為罕見。 Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine
惟有三例見載，其一，Avery Brundage舊藏，現貯舊金山 Arts》，密蘇里州堪薩斯城，1959年，頁176（右下）；仍
亞洲藝術博物館，傳六朝晚期，刊 Réne-Yvon Lefebvre 有三例，據傳1928年於河南洛陽金村古墓出土，載懷履光，
d’Argencé編，《Chinese, Korean and Japanese 《洛陽古城古墓考》，上海，1934年，圖版LIV，編號133。
Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection》，東
京，1974年，圖版28；其二，蓄布里斯托城市美術館，約 其它近例，可比一銅鎏金龍，鱗片分明，通身鉅細靡
魏朝，錄P.J. Donnelly，《The Animal in Chinese Art》， 遺，脊背作鋸齒狀，原為 Frederick Mayer 寶蓄，展
倫敦，1968年，圖版I-c；其三，傳漢代，售於倫敦蘇富比 於《Mostra d’arte cinese》，威尼斯，1954年，編
1974年12月2日，編號31。 號159，後售於倫敦佳士得1974年6月24至25日，編
號143；及一例，展於《Animals and animal designs
另有一類銅鎏金龍例，斷代六朝，身形纖長，昂首闊步， in Chinese Art》，埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，1998年，編號
如史蒂芬•瓊肯三世舊藏一例，售於紐約蘇富比2019年3 15；一例較大，未施鎏金，展於《Six Dynasties Art
月19日，編號116；另一例，Grenville L. Winthrop舊藏， from the Norman A. Kurland Collection》，埃斯卡
現貯哈佛藝術博物館，曾展於《Grenville L. Winthrop: 納齊，倫敦，2018年，編號10；仍有一例，仰首、抬
Retrospective for a Collector》，福格藝術博物館， 右前臂，普林斯頓大學美術館雅藏，展於《魏晉南北朝
劍橋，麻省，1969年，編號54；再一例，藏納爾遜-阿 藝術》，China House Gallery/華美協進社，1975年，
特金斯藝術博物館，堪薩斯城，錄Ross E. Taggart編， 編號38。
《Handbook of the Collection in the William Rockhill

162 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA II