Page 196 - Irving Collection Part II Chinese Art

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L A C Q U E R • J A D E • B R O N Z E • I N K T H E R V I N G C O L L E C T I O N 髹金飾玉 - 歐雲伉儷珍藏

~1232 AN UNUSUAL GLASS-INSET GILT-BRONZE SECTION
OF A PILLOW
CHINA, WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 8)

One end of the section of the pierced, rectangular, gilt-bronze frame cast in This unusual section of a pillow is similar to a gilt-bronze and jade pillow
low relief on the sides with the forequarters of a recumbent mythical beast, excavated in 1968 from the tomb of Dou Wan, Mancheng, Hebei province,
its upraised head cast with small horns above the ears, the front of the which is now in the Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang, and illustrated
animal’s neck inset with two white glass inlays, and the back of the head by Zhixin Jason Sun, Age of Empires: Art of the Qing and Han Dynasties, The
with a two-part glass plaque carved with a decorative motive, the glass Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017, pp. 180-81, no. 99. The gilt-bronze ends
now opaque and altered to buf color of the Dou Wan pillow are very similar to the remaining end of the present
pillow section. The ends of a more ornate gilt-bronze-mounted pillow of
13Ω in. (34.3 cm.) long, hongmu stand
this type, also with jade insets, dated Western Han, c. 113 BC, in the Hebei
$60,000-80,000
Provincial Museum, are also in the shape of the forequarters of a mythical
PROVENANCE animal with raised head. See China, eine Wiege der Weltkultur, Mainz, 1994,
Chen Hui-ling, 1988. no. 73. Three further rectangular pillows of this type and date, all now in
The Irving Collection, no. 1945. the Xuzhou Museum, Jiangsu province, were included in the exhibition,
The Search for Immortality; Tomb Treasures of Han China, The Fitzwilliam
Museum, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 208-12, nos. 95-97. nos. 95 and 96, are
composed of jade plaques with gold foil decoration, and no. 96 rests on a
gilt-bronze frame with dragons at the corners, their intertwined tails forming
the bottom of the frame. No. 97, the simplest, is formed by a rectangular jade
block with thick gold foil at the edges.
西漢 鎏金銅嵌琉璃獸形枕構件

(alternate view)

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