Page 24 - Sotheby's Part I Collection of Sir Joeseph Hotung Collection CHINESE ART , Oct. 9, 2022
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؇ ⺗ TWO GILT-BRONZE 'DRAGON' SUPPORTS,
ဏ ږ EASTERN HAN DYNASTY OR LATER
א ზ each dragon depicted half-kneeling with the tail wrapped up in front, its head turned to the left, modelled with a single horn and large
˸ Ѭ circular eyes below long bushy brows, the body detailed with groups of small circles and striations, its right arm held upwards and the
ܝ Ꮂ upper half of its back cut away, suggesting its function as a support for a vessel
h. 4.6 cm
ו
PROVENANCE Ը๕j
ԑ Eskenazi Ltd, London, 6th February 1989. ࡾ̔ॶᄁdࡐd1989ϋ2˜6˚
Շ EXHIBITED ࢝ᚎj
Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society of ڡზၳߵjʕ̚˾ၾඈဧεڡზኜd࠰ಥ؇˙ௗନኪ
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990. ึd࠰ಥᖵஔd࠰ಥd1990ϋ
British Museum, London, on loan, 1992-2015.
ɽߵ௹يdࡐd࠾࢝d1992-2015ϋ
LITERATURE
̈وj
Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos
Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 118. ᖯಌʿฌီgႷࣸdڡზၳߵjʕ̚˾ၾඈဧεڡზኜ
d࠰ಥd1990ϋdᇜ118
HK$ 80,000-120,000
US$ 10,200-15,300
Animal-form supports of this type were made as legs for vessels such An identical example, also naturalistically modelled as a kneeling
as lian, zun or pan; for example, a Han dynasty gilt-bronze lian with dragon, is included in the exhibition catalogue Oriental Works of Art.
crouching bear feet in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Shogado 70 years, Kyoto, 1989, p. 38 bottom. For other gilt-bronze 117
Institution, Washington DC, accession no. S1987.341a-b. animal-form supports, see a 'bear' example in the Arthur M. Sackler ̏ ⺗
Museum, Harvard Art Museums, accession no. 1943.53.92; and two A GILT-BRONZE 'BIRD' MASK,
sets of four bird-shaped vessel legs in the Metropolitan Museum ᕧ ږ NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY
of Art, New York, accession nos 49.137.1-8, presumably made to
support lacquerware which perished with time. ზ dominated by a bird mask with alert eyes of almond shape above a triple-beak and a toothed mouth, the curled eyebrows detailed
ϻ with hatching and stippling, all crowned by a symmetrical design in openwork with horned felines and hatted figures, wood stand and
ɛ Japanese wood box
10.5 by 9.8 cm
ᖕ
PROVENANCE Ը๕j
ࠦ Eskenazi Ltd, London, 1986. ࡾ̔ॶᄁdࡐd1986ϋ
७ P.C. Lu & Sons, Ltd, Hong Kong, 5th January 1986. ኁˤ˨ɿϞࠢʮ̡d࠰ಥd1986 ϋ1˜5˚
⧕ EXHIBITED ࢝ᚎj
Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990. ڡზၳߵjʕ̚˾ၾඈဧεڡზኜd࠰ಥ؇˙ௗନኪ
British Museum, London, on loan, 1992-2015. ึd࠰ಥᖵஔd࠰ಥd1990ϋ
ɽߵ௹يdࡐd࠾࢝d1992-2015ϋ
LITERATURE
̈وj
Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos
Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 119. ᖯಌʿฌီgႷࣸdڡზၳߵjʕ̚˾ၾඈဧεڡზኜ
d࠰ಥd1990ϋdᇜ119
HK$ 100,000-150,000
US$ 12,800-19,200
A similar reticulated bronze mask and its matching ring handle, each zoomorphic mask surmounted by a figure and four animals arranged
centred with a figure flanked by a pair of dragons, were unearthed in in a symmetrical design, from the collection of C.L. Rutherston,
Guyuan, Ningxia, and published in 'Ningxia Guyuan Beiwei mu qingli illustrated in Walter Perceval Yetts, Chinese Bronzes, London, 1925,
jianbao [A brief archaeological report of a Northern Wei tomb in pl. 9C. A pair of gilt bronze mask and ring handles, formerly in the
Guyuan, Ningxia]', Wenwu / Cultural Relics, 1984, no. 6, pp. 46-50, collections of Walter Hochstadter and Barry L. MacLean, was sold
figs 17 and 19. See also another example with a trefoil-crowned twice in our New York rooms, 20th March 2002, lot 24, and again,
46 I FOR COMPLETE CATALOGUING ༉းྡʫ࢙ሗᓭᚎ SOTHEBYS.COM/HK1293 23rd March 2022, lot 248.
