Page 18 - March 17 2017 Chinese Art NYC, Christies

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED COLLECTION
1009
A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT SILVER-INLAID BRONZE
CORNER MOUNT
WARRING STATES PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC
The V-shaped mount is cast in openwork as two mythical beasts confronted
at the corner where the two heads become one head with a common muzzle
and open mouth. Each animal shown in profle in a semi-crouching position
has tapered ears and long bifurcated crest inlaid with feather-like segments,
one segment swept forward across the neck, the other swept back onto the
rump below the long, striped, S-shaped tail. The muscular body is inlaid
with wide interlocking geometric scrolls and fne linear scrolls, those on the
neck, front haunch and lower leg terminating in a small bird head, and with
further feather-segmented scrolls on the rear haunch and leg. The whole is
surmounted by an angular bracket inlaid with rectangular panels formed by
scroll-flled triangles, and has a shallow groove on the undecorated reverse.
4¿ x 3¿ in. (10.5 x 7.9 cm.)
$150,000-250,000
PROVENANCE
Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) Collections, by 1965.
Else Sackler (1913-2000) Collection, and thence by descent within the family.
EXHIBITED
New York, Columbia University, February 1965.
Brilliant gold and silver-inlaid bronzes were popular and widely distributed
in China in the Warring States period, from the ffth through third centuries
BC. This method of bronze ornamentation was introduced in the preceding
Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) when a diversifcation of style and
technique in bronze manufacturing arose. The artistic and technological
advancements of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-206 BC) can be linked
to the economic vitality and growing decentralization of political authority
that characterized the times. The earliest metal-inlaid bronzes of the sixth
century BC employed copper inlay with animal motifs that appear to derive
from nomadic art traditions. Later, more abstract designs with curvilinear
elements proved most popular with the Chinese. Gold and silver inlay, as
well as copper, with colorful additions of turquoise, glass and even lacquer,
made bronzes, previously signifcant chiefy for their political and religious
associations, increasingly valued for their sumptuously decorative appeal as
luxury items.
Fig. 1. Two corner mounts from the collection of Stephen Junkunc IV, Christie’s New
York, 4 June 1992, lot 194.
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The design of this corner mount, which can be interpreted as either two
confronted animals that share a common muzzle and mouth, or as a single
animal whose body has been split, was being used to decorate bronze
vessels as early as the Shang dynasty, and can be seen on two zun of
thirteenth century BC date, illustrated by Jay Xu, ‘The diamond-back Dragon
of the Late Period’, Chinese Bronzes: Selected articles from Orientations
1983-2000, Hong Kong, p. 304 (fg. 5a) and p. 305 (fgs. 5b and 6). The motif
is ideal not only for the sides of a vessel, but for use as a corner where the
split animal can form a true angle. The present corner mount would have
been from a set of four, and is identical to another in the collection of Dr.
Paul Singer, which one must assume is from the same set, illustrated by M.
Loehr in Relics of Ancient China from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer, Asia
Society, New York, 1965, pp. 99 and 157, no. 71, where he refers to it as one of
four corners for a lacquer table and states that “there are two nearly identical
objects in this country, and a rather close example in the Stoclet collection.”
“The two in this country,” most likely referred to the pair of identical corner
mounts from the collection of Stephen Junkunc IV, later sold at Christie’s
New York, 4 June 1992, lot 194, and now in the collection of Pierre Uldry,
illustrated in Chinesisches Gold und Silber, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1994,
no. 23 (Fig. 1). Along with the Singer and Uldry mounts, the present mount
would complete the set of four. The Stoclet example, illustrated by H. F. E.
Visser, Asiatic Art in private collections of Holland and Belgium, New York
and Amsterdam, 1948, pls. 63 and 126, and later illustrated by Eskenazi,
Chinese works of art from the Stoclet collection, 2003, no. 5, is also formed
by confronted mythical beasts that share a common muzzle and mouth. But
these are winged, have an arched crest rising from the top of the head and
are shown with two hind legs. The design on the upper bracket is similar but
not identical to that of the present and other three aforementioned mounts.
Mounts of this type are also found in gilt bronze, such as a pair reputedly
excavated from Jincun, Loyang, Henan province, and now in the Hakutsuri
Bijutsukan, Kobe, illustrated in Chugoku Sengoku jidai no bijutsu (The Art of
the Warring States Period), Osaka City Museum, p. 126, no. 211, and another
single mount from the Idemitsu Museum also illustrated, no. 210.
Compare, also, the silver inlay in a very similar geometric style on the bronze
bianhu in the Freer Gallery, illustrated by T. Lawton, Chinese Art of the
Warring States Period, Washington, D.C., 1982, no. 10. A silver-inlaid bronze
fgure of a mythical winged beast from the royal tombs of the Zhongshan
state, Pingshan county, Hebei province, illustrated by J. Rawson, Mysteries
of Ancient China, British Museum, 1996, p. 156, fg. 2, has segmented
feather inlay on the wings and exhibits a muscular stance similar to that of
the animals that form the corner mounts. Rawson refers to this piece and
other silver-inlaid bronze animal-form pieces as having been made either
as stands or fttings for furniture. For the epitome of this concept, see the
magnifcent gold and silver-inlaid bronze table support and frame unearthed
in 1978 at Pingshan county, Hebei province and now in the Hebei Museum,
illustrated in Gems of China’s Cultural Relics, Beijing, 1990, no. 69, where the
square frame for the table top is supported by dragons at the corners, with
phoenixes in between, all supported on a circular base raised on animal-form
feet.
戰國 青銅錯銀異獸紋器座