Page 16 - Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015
P. 16
8000 8001 in the Gran home
8000 8001
A CAST BRONZE STANDING FIGURE OF AN IMMORTAL
A POLYCHROME AND GILT LACQUERED BRONZE FEMALE Ming dynasty, 16th/17th century
ATTENDANT FIGURE Dressed in a scholar’s cap with trailing ribbons, his layered garments
Late Ming dynasty tied with a sash suspending an immortal’s gourd as he stands on a
rocky outcropping surrounded by waves; the surfaces finished in a
Dressed in a veil framing her oval face, a long sash with undercut patina of dark brown hue.
18 1/2in (47cm) high
details falling to the front of her gown and an offering cloth covering $20,000 - 30,000
her hands as she cradles a large scroll in her left arm while standing 明十六或十七世紀 銅仙人立像
on a low rectangular plinth finished with corner feet, the exterior
surfaces showing layers of black, red and gilt lacquer.
13 3/4in (35cm) high
$4,000 - 6,000
晚明 多彩漆金銅侍女立像 The immortal depicted here may be Lu Dongbin, the patron of
scholars, as suggested by his scholar’s cap and attire. The waves
A bronze standing figure of the Daoist goddess Bixia yuanju, bordering the reticulated plinth may refer to his journey, as one of the
ascribed to the Southern Song dynasty, appears to be the prototype immortals, to Penglai Island, the abode of the immortals.
for the standing pose, as well as the pleasing oval facial type
depicted in this lot: see Philip Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes the St. For a bronze immortal of similar size and attributed to the 16th/17th
Louis Art Museum and Robert E. Kresko Collections, 2008, cat. century, see Robert Mowry, China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The
no. 1, pp. 22-23 (63.5cm high). See also see the candle stand Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900,
in the form of a dancer with similar face, dated as sixteenth-first 1993, cat. no. 52, pp. 210-11 (45.7cm high). Both the Clague
half seventeenth century, discussed by Robert Mowry in China’s standing figure and this lot show perforations on the face for
Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later attachment of hair to form a mustache and beard.
Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, 1993, cat. no. 54, pp. 214-215
(42.6cm high); and variation on the same dancing female figure in gilt For smaller version of this lot in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
bronze sold in our London rooms, sale 13740, 10 July 2006, lot 261, Museum, also identified as Lu Dongbin and ascribed to the Ming
and dated as late Ming dynasty (41cm high). dynasty, see Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, 1990, fig. 64, p 83
(25.5cm high). Another version in a similar pose, also standing on a
wave-covered base and identified as Lu Dongbin, is preserved in the
Musée Cernuschi: see Michel Maucuer, Bronzes de la Chine impériale
des Song aux Qing, 2013, cat.no. 108, p. 156 (25cm high).
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