Page 122 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

1403

A VERY RARE GREY STONE BEAR-FORM SUPPORT
HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

The seated bear is shown almost as if stretching, with right foreleg raised and the left extended above the similarly
extended left rear leg, the claws of all of the paws curled under. The head is turned slightly to the side, and carved with
mouth agape and ears pricked above ruffs of fur. A thick, rounded protrusion that extends the length of the bear’s back
forms the back wall of the the slightly tapered and partially hollowed tube that rises above the bear’s head to a rim
carved with a ridged band. There are blackish surface accretions overall.

11Ω in. (29.2 cm.) high

$150,000-200,000

PROVENANCE

Heeramaneck Galleries, New York.
Rare Art, New York, 1980s.

EXHIBITED

Heaven & Earth: Chinese Art from Neolithic to Qing, S. Bernstein & Co., San Francisco, 11 October - 16 December, 1996,
no. 20.

LITERATURE

A. Salmony, “A Chinese Jade Bear of the Early Han Period”, Artibus Asiae, vol. X/4, 1947, p. 264, fg. 7.
S. Bernstein, Collecting Chinese Art, University of Washington Press, 2000, p. 38, fg. 22.

During the Han dynasty, the bear, which symbolizes bravery and strength, was a popular image incorporated into various aspects of
mortuary art, primarily as the support of various vessels or furniture, but also seen with other animals and images of immortals in
mountainous landscapes, meant to depict the realm of the immortals, that decorated pottery and bronze zun, and censer covers. A
green-glazed pottery zun supported by three bears is illustrated by S. Little in Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China,
The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1988, p. 38, no. 10, where the author notes that bears “functioned as guardian animals”. A grey
pottery censer and cover in the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated by M C. Wang et al. in A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights
of Early China, Boston, 2006, p. 89, fg. b, also has three seated bear supports, as well as a bear seated in the mountains that form
the cover. A bronze zun in the Freer Gallery of Art, p. 70, fg. 10, is supported by three seated bears, and has bears among the many
real and imaginary creatures shown amidst the mountain peaks. All of these bear supports are integral to the vessel, unlike a free-
standing grey pottery support in the shape of a bear with gaping mouth and front paws resting on the back legs (16.7 cm. high), of
Western Han date, from Xingping, Shaanxi province, illustrated p. 90, fg. c.

At the time A. Salmony published the present stone bear-form support, from the collection of the Heeramaneck Galleries, New
York, in Artibus Asiae, vol. X/4, 1947, p. 264, fg. 7, the author dated it 1st century BC, and compared it to a very similar example
made of bronze that is illustrated by a woodblock print in Xiqing gujian, vol. 38, p. 28, the 40 volume catalogue of Chinese Ritual
Bronzes in the Collection of the Qianlong Emperor, compiled from 1749-1755, which is illustrated in a drawing by Salmony, p. 261,
fg. 6. In the Xiqing gujian, the bronze bear is attributed to the Tang dynasty, which Salmony questions on the basis of some late
Zhou archaism on the bronze bear. Both the bronze example and the present stone support show the bear seated in the exact same
position and with a tube rising from the back.

The closest bear-form supports of the free-standing type, like the stone support, are the small gilt-bronze examples with an opening
in the back, which are thought to have served as supports or fttings, probably for the wood or lacquer legs of vessels or furniture.
They are stylistically similar to the stone bear, as they are shown seated and with mouth agape, but usually shown with both
forepaws resting on the knees of the bent rear legs or with the left forepaw resting in such a manner, while the right forepaw is
raised, as seen on the present stone support. A bronze bear of the frst type, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., which is
dated 3rd century AD, is also illustrated by Salmony in Artibus Asiae, p. 261, fg. 5. The Freer bear is 7 inches high and is inlaid with
turquoise decoration, typically seen on the smaller gilt-bronze bears. This bear incorporates a tubular socket. A small Han dynasty,
gilt-bronze bear of the second type (3¿ in. high), has a D-shaped opening in the back of the head and an opening in the base. A pair
of fttings of this type are illustrated by d’Argencé in Chinese Treasures from the Avery Brundage Collection, The Asia Society, New
York, 1968, pp. 44-5, no. 30, and another was sold at Christie’s New York, 19-20 September 2013, lot 1499. Supports of this type
would have been made in sets, either three or four, depending on what was being supported.

Based on the large size and weight of the present stone support, it is dificult to know what it might have supported. The depth of
the interior of the tube is 3æ in. and the diameter of the interior of the tube, 2æ in. It is also dificult to know whether it would have
been part of a set.
漢 灰岩熊形座

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