Page 166 - Sotheby's NYC September 21 2022 Important Chinese Art

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AN ARCHAISTIC SILVER-INLAID BRONZE For an example attributed to the Yuan dynasty housed in
FIGURE OF A TAPIR the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see one included in
MING DYNASTY the exhibition Through the Prism of the Past. Antiquarian
Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, National
Length 9¼ in., 23.5 cm Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, cat. no. III-55. Compare also
one attributed to the Song-Ming dynasty and recently sold in
PROVENANCE these rooms, 21st September 2021, lot 223. Finally, consider
Swiss Private Collection. three examples attributed to the Yuan / Ming periods, all sold
at auction: one in our Paris rooms, 9th June 2010, lot 37, and
The shape and inlaid decoration of this vessel are based on the other two sold at Christie’s New York, 26th September
ancient prototypes from the Warring States period, 5th-3rd 2020, lot 1538 and 22nd March 2007, lot 162.
century B.C., such as one in the National Palace Museum,
Taipei, illustrated in Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of a
Dynasty Bronze Wine vessels, National Palace Museum, thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd., sample
Taipei, 1989, cat. no. 66. no.C119k12.
Archaistic vessels of this form have typically been broadly ⊖ $ 100,000-120,000
attributed to the Song to Ming dynasties. Compare a similar
vessel with spiral relief designs illustrated in Philip K. Hu,
Later Chinese Bronzes. The Saint Louis Museum and Robert E. 明 銅錯銀犧尊
Kresko Collections, Saint Louis, 2008, pl. 6, where the author
notes that the presence of relief casting suggests a Ming 來源
dynasty manufacture. Compare two others attributed to the
Ming dynasty, 16th or 17th century: the first was included in 瑞士私人收藏
the exhibition Bronzes de la Chine impériale des Song aux 本拍品經牛津熱釋光檢測編號C119k12，結果與其斷
Qing, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 2013, cat. no. 42, the other
was sold in these rooms, 15th March 2017, lot 565. Another 代相符
related example with fewer relief designs, also attributed to
the Ming dynasty, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York (accession no. 29.110.9).

162 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11074 163