Page 130 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

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AN ARCHAIC BRONZE BELL (BO) Imposing in form and design, this bell Collection, Berkeley, 1966, pl. XLVI B. Further
reß ects the sophistication of bronze musical bells of this type include one in the Metropolitan
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY
instruments which had been produced in Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 1988.20.7;
of pointed oval section, each side cast with China since the thirteenth century BC. It is one in the British Museum, London, published
four principal registers, the broad lowest cast using techniques typical of the state of Jin in Jessica Rawson, Art and Ritual, London, 1987,
register cast in low relief with a taotie mask (present-day Shanxi province), which became pl. 35; and another in the Compton Verney Art
ß anked by dragons, the creatures’ bodies richly the center of bronze casting in north China and Gallery, Warwickshire, coll. no. CVCSC 0405.A.
patterned in leiwen spirals, the upper three was renowned for exquisite bells such as the A set of fourteen bells of related design,
registers divided by a central vertical panel and present. excavated at Jinshengcun, Taiyuan, Shanxi
each bearing six large hemispherical bosses province, is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi
Bells of this type were decorated by using
cast in the form of coiled animals, horizontal quanji [The complete collection of Chinese
carved clay pattern blocks, which were
bands of interlaced dragons between each archaic bronzes], vol. 8, Beijing, 1995, pls 113
impressed onto strips of clay to become molds
register, the ß at top supporting an elaborate and 114.
for the bronze. Thus, one master pattern block
openwork suspension loop in the form of a
could be used for several di# erent bells, and According to Jessica Rawson in Mysteries of
pair of confronting feline mythical beasts,
would have contributed to the impressive rows Ancient China. New Discoveries from Ancient
their sinuous bodies moving in an undulating
of identically decorated bells. As the bell would China, London, 1996, p. 134, ‘their elliptical
rhythm from their curling tails to their arched
have been suspended from a loop, it is known cross section is crucial to the musical quality
torsos and long necks turned back to grasp
as a bo or niu zhong. In large sets of bells, such and determines the two notes that can be
their backs with their jaws, two snakes twisting
as that from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of achieved: one by striking the bell on the outside
around the felines’ necks and extending their
Zheng (d. ca. 433 BC), bo were included with at the central point of the lip, and the other by
tails upward to form twin loops, leiwen swirling
sets of another type of bell, yong zhong. striking the corner’.
across the bodies of the felines and snakes,
the surface with a gray-green patina and Bells with very similar decoration and probably $ 100,000-150,000
scattered malachite, azurite, and brownish-red from the same set, of various sizes, include
encrustations one exhibited in the Marco Polo Seventh 㜙␐ġġġ曺戭垈嘢䲳捃
Height 11½ in., 29.3 cm Centenary Exhibition, Chinese Art, Venice,
1954, cat. no. 75 (16.5 inches high); one from Ը๕
PROVENANCE the Pillsbury Collection, illustrated in George W. ⬱㜙ɀ梃⇑㴎⌂⢓炷1874Į1951炸㓞啷
Collection of Dr. A. F. Philips (1874-1951). Weber, The Ornaments of Late Chou Bronzes, ΐ㔎喯⭴㭼1978⸜3㚰30㖍炻䶐嘇23
Sotheby’s London, 30th March 1978, lot 23. New Brunswick, 1973, pl. 61 (12.5 inches); 劙⚳揝嶗梲侩➢慹㚫㓞啷
Collection of the British Rail Pension Fund. another included in the Exhibition of Chinese ΐ㔎喯⭴㭼1989⸜12㚰12㖍炻䶐嘇12
Sotheby’s London, 12th December 1989, lot 12. Ritual Bronzes, Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit,
1940, cat. no. 45 (11.75 inches); and a fourth, ࢝ᚎ
EXHIBITED publisheded in Rene-Yvon Lefebvre-d’Argence, 俾⬱㜙⯤⤏喅埻⌂䈑棐炻1986军1988⸜
San Antonio Museum of Art, 1986-1988. Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage

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