Page 115 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

Exhibition
International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 406.

展覽
《中國藝術國際展覽會》，皇家藝術學院，倫敦，1935年，編號406

Literature
Albert J. Koop, Early Chinese Bronzes, London, 1924, pl. 103 A.
C.G. Seligman & H.C. Beck, ‘Far Eastern Glass: Some Western Origins’, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm Bulletin,
no. 10, 1938, pp. 1-64, pl. X.

出版
Albert J. Koop，《Early Chinese Bronzes》，倫敦，1924年，圖版103A
C.G. Seligman 及 H.C. Beck，〈Far Eastern Glass: Some Western Origins〉，《The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm
Bulletin》，號10，1938年，頁1-64，圖版X

Catalogue Note
Bronze, Gold, Silver, Glass – Opulence in the Warring States Period

Regina Krahl

This bronze vessel with its embellishments in gold, silver and polychrome glass, individually designed and created probably for
some royal patron, must have represented the peak of luxury in the Warring States period (475-221 BC). Vessels decorated in this
most ambitious and flamboyant style ever devised for Chinese bronzes are so exceedingly rare, that the technique is virtually
unknown and almost nothing has been published about this important aspect of the bronze craft, since examples are virtually
impossible to see. Of only three other known bronze vessels with related glass inlays, only one piece, excavated in China, but of
slightly later date, has been made widely public and has thus become famous; the other two came onto the market around 1930,
entered Japanese collections, but have hardly been publicly shown ever since. The present piece, too, has not been published or
exhibited since 1938. Connoisseurs of Chinese art and even specialists in archaic Chinese bronzes may therefore feel they have
never seen anything like it.

Inlaid bronzes began to be made in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC). While the early copper inlays that were added to
the mold before the bronze was cast, were limited to fairly stiff cut-out silhouettes, other techniques were soon experimented with
in order to create more vivid designs. The preferred method became incising into the bronze after casting, where the grooves were
then filled with precious metals. The present piece is inlaid with complex silver designs, consisting of lively enlaced lines and
volutes. They can be seen as the bronze craftsmen’s masterful answer to the concurrent fashion for fluid painted decoration on
contemporary lacquer wares, which are here superbly echoed in bronze.

The gold bosses of our vessel were created by applying rather thickly hammered sheet gold onto raised knobs, rather than through
mercury gilding, as was quite commonly used at the time, but which would have added only a much thinner layer of the precious
metal. The bosses themselves appear to have been separately added to the cast bronze before being covered with gold.

In addition to the use of gold, silver and copper to enrich the monochrome bronze surface, Warring States vessels were sometimes
inlaid with pieces of malachite and turquoise which provided bright color, but were very small. Much more successful in adding
color and sparkle was the inlay with polychrome glass plaques. Yet it was clearly also the most complex and demanding method,
not only on account of the extreme rarity and preciousness of glass at the time, but also because it required the cooperation of
artisans working in very different media, versed in different techniques that required different skills. To receive the glass plaques,
the bronze was cast with specially shaped recesses, which explains the walls’ unusual thickness and the vessel’s remarkable
weight. The glass plaques then had to be created to fit.

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