Page 63 - Status & Ritual Chinese Archaic Bronzes

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A LARGE BRONZE BELL, YONGZHONG

西周早/中期 青銅蟠龍紋勇鐘

EARLY-MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU PERIOD (11TH-9TH CENTURY BC)

The front of the bell is cast with rows of projecting bosses, above a band of low-relief animal-form scrolls.
The reverse is decorated with further rows of bosses. The bronze has a pale greenish-grey patina with
malachite and azurite encrustation.

17æ in. (45.1 cm.) high

£30,000-50,000 $47,000-78,000
€42,000-69,000

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s, Parke Bernet New York, 4 November 1978, lot 301.
The Collection of Raf Y. Mottahedeh (1901-1978), New York, no. 817, before 14 January 1981.
From an important private European collection.

Bells of this type were made in graduated sizes to form a set or instrumental ‘chime’. Each bell was capable
of emitting two diferent tones, dependent on the exact location struck. R. Bagley explains “sets of bells
were both aurally and visually the most prominent instruments of musical ensembles” in ancient China,
but outside of China were unknown, (Music in the Age of Confucius, J. So (ed.), Freer Gallery of Art and
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, 2000, pp.35-63.)

A yongzhong bell similar in form can be seen in the Sackler Collection, illustrated by J. Rawson in Western
Zhou Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington D.C , 1990, vol. II B, pp. 748-749. Note
the fat top, and the low-relief stylised serpent ornamentation bands set between rows of bosses.

See also a set of graduated bells in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (accession no.
S1987.6).

來源:
1978年11月4日於紐約蘇富比拍賣，拍品301號
美國紐約重要藏家Rafi Y. Mottahedeh私人舊藏於1981年1月14日前購入，編號817
重要歐洲私人珍藏

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