Page 54 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTION
1116
A RARE FINELY CAST TRIPOD EWER AND COVER, HE
WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)
The compressed globular body is raised on the backs of three squatting, bird-like mythological creatures
with feathered wings, scaly bodies, ornate horns and front claws clasped in front of the chest, and the
sides are crisply cast in relief with two registers of intricate, interlocking winged dragon-and-bird scrolls
separated by a plain band, the lower register an inverted version of the upper. The short, curved spout is
formed by the forequarters and head of a bird with hooked beak, and the low domed cover cast with fne
interlocking scrolls is attached by a linked chain to a large ring that encircles the dragon-form handle
cast with stripes on the sides. The vessel has areas of cuprite patina and blue-green encrustation.
10Ω in. (26.6 cm.) wide
$100,000-150,000

PROVENANCE
The T.T. Tsui Collection, Hong Kong, before 1996.
Christie’s New York, 26 March 2003, lot 156.
LITERATURE
Splendour of Ancient Chinese Art: Selections from the Collections of T. T. Tsui Galleries
of Chinese Art Worldwide, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 2.
This fnely cast he appears to be far more elaborate than other published examples of the same period.
The two closest are the he in the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago,
illustrated by C. Mackenzie, ‘Adaptation and Invention: Chinese Bronzes of the Eastern Zhou and Han
Periods’, Orientations, June 1993, p. 64, fg. 14; and the one included in the exhibition, Sculpture and
ornament in early Chinese art, Eskenazi, London, 11 June-13 July 1996, no. 4. Both of these have a bird-
head spout with hinged cover and a tail that extends from the body on the side opposite the spout. The
legs, too, appear similar - a bird with spread wings perched atop the shoulders of a spirit fgure with
human-like body, but clawed feet.

On both of these comparable vessels the decoration is arranged in three bands which are cast in low
relief and separated by copper-inlaid bands, and the handle is an arched feline-like creature with hoof
feet. The present he has the bands of decoration cast in higher relief, with a single plain band separating
them. The legs of this vessel are fashioned as anthropomorphic birds, although they are predominantly
bird-like in features, with the human element present in the stance, in particular the front legs on which
the claws are clasped at the chest in an expressive, somewhat fawning manner. They have scaly bodies
and a pair of delicate, scrolled horns. There is also a greater sense of the weight of the vessel actually
being borne by their crouching bodies than is apparent on the other two he.

This he, like the other two, also has a spout formed by the forequarters of a bird with hooked beak, but
the beak does not have a hinged cover, and the open mouth gives the head a wilder, fercer appearance.
This is also true of the handle which appears to be a winged dragon, its forequarters at the front, and its
fared, bifurcated tail at the back.
A less elaborate he with bird-head spout in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, is illustrated by
J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes, vol. III, 1995, pp. 406-7, no. 84. As with the present he, the beak
is cast open and the neck is cast with a scale pattern, but the rest of the vessel is undecorated
except for copper-inlaid bands.
戰國 青銅交龍紋神鳥足盉

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