Page 46 - Sotheby's Junkunc Collection March 2019

The unusual subject of the toad appears in Chinese art from the Eastern Han period. An earthenware
pole stand in the form of a toad was excavated in 1942 at Pengshen, Sichuan Province, and is now in
the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, illustrated in Xu Huping, The Treasures of the Nanjing Museum, Hong
Kong, 2001, pl. 32. The subject of the toad gained popularity during Three Kingdoms to Western Jin
period when a number of playful celadon-glazed vessels made for the scholar’s desk were produced
in kilns in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu. Compare several toad-form waterpots illustrated
in Mary Tregear, Catalogue of Chinese Greenware in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Oxford, 1976, pls
60-66; another, described as a brushwasher with the forearms outstretched, clasping a cup to its
mouth, illustrated in Desmond Gure, ‘Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockholm, 1963;
A Comparative Study’, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin, no. 36, 1964, pl. 16, fig. 3; and a
tripod waterdropper of related form, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Gongyi meishu bian: Taoci
[Complete series on Chinese art. Arts and crafts section: Ceramics], Shanghai, 1988-1991, vol. 1, pl. 173.
The unusual kneeling posture is seen on a Western Jin dynasty Yueyao model of a mythical beast, its left
forepaw placed on its chest, whilst its right is raised to its chin, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th April
2017, lot 3209.

A strikingly similar bronze sculpture of a kneeling mythical beast, attributed to the Six Dynasties, is in the
Avery Brundage Collection, illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, Chinese, Korean and Japanese
Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pl. 18. Whilst the creature bears no
resemblance to a toad, it is similarly depicted in a submissive kneeling posture, and with its mouth in a
broad lipped grimace.

As Salmony observes, an additional distinctive feature of the present lot is the ‘blunted, squared-off
mouth’, framed by its clearly pronounced lips in a comical grimace, op.cit., p. 255. Similar arrangements
of the mouth are also seen on large stone sculptures of the Six Dynasties period, including a Western
Jin dynasty stone chimera, illustrated in Osvald Siren, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth
Century, vol. 2, New York, 1925, pl. 1B, and a stone chimera attributed to the Southern Dynasties, 420-
556 AD, illustrated in ibid., pls 13a-b.

蟾蜍為題之器早見於東漢陶器。參考一蟾蜍形杖 比較一六朝瑞獸形飾例，跪姿與本品極為相似，現屬
基例，於1942年四川彭山區出土，現藏於南京博 艾弗里•布倫戴奇舊藏，載 René-Yvon Lefebvre
物院，見徐湖平，《Treasures of the Nanjing d’Argencé，《Chinese, Korean and Japanese
Museum》，香港，2001年，編號32。三國至西 Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection》，
晉時期，蟾蜍形器更為流行，尤見於青釉文人珍 舊金山，1974年，編號18。雖此例造型並非蟾蜍，
玩，北至浙江，南至江蘇均曾燒製。比較數蟾蜍 但其跪姿及寬大口形卻與本品不謀而合。
形水盂例，見 Mary Tregear，《Catalogue of
Chinese Greenware in the Ashmolean Museum 據Salmony描述，本品另一特徵乃其嘴呈方形及
Oxford》牛津，1976年，圖版60-66；另比一筆洗 嘴唇突出，見前述出處，頁255。此口部特徵亦
例，蟾蜍前臂外張，口銜水杯，載 Desmond Gure, 可見於大型六朝石雕，見一西晉石雕瑞獸，載喜
〈Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition 仁龍，《Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to
at Stockholm, 1963; A Comparative Study〉 the Fourteenth Century》，卷2，紐約，1925
，《The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 年，圖版1B，及另一南朝石雕瑞獸，見前述出處，
Bulletin》，號36，1964年，圖版16，圖3；尚有一 圖版13a-b。
三足水滴例，器型相近，圖載於《中國美術全集·工
藝美術編：陶瓷》，上海，1988-1991年，卷1，圖
版173。再比一例，西晉越窰青釉瑞獸，跪姿與本品
相近，瑞獸左爪置與胸前，右爪則置於下頷，售於香
港蘇富比2017年4月5日，編號3209。

44 JUNKUNC: ARTS OF ANCIENT CHINA