Lot 39
China, Song Dynasty or earlier, ca. 450 BCE to 1279 CE. This is an incredibly striking piece, a bronze bian hu (bianhu), also sometimes known as a pilgrim vessel. Hu is a typical vase form, and bian means flat; two sides of this piece are flattened, giving it a compressed globular form. It stands on a slightly flared foot and is surmounted by a cylindrical neck with a slightly flared mouth/rim. Raised cast bronze taotie (gluttonous ogre) masks hold ringed bronze handles. On the shoulders, neck, and body of the piece are flowing low-relief designs confined to a series of small rectangles. This particular object was dated to the Song Dynasty in 1966 by the Parke-Bernet Gallery, but all other examples that I know of are from the Warring States (475-221 BCE) or late Eastern Zhou (ca. 5th century BCE) periods, or one from the tomb of the king/prince Liu Sheng (died 113 BCE). They were ritual vessels that projected the power of their owners through the use of the precious material, bronze; they once held wine, and were likely buried with their owner. See a very similar example at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, and another in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Some of these have inlays of silver, or gilding, or stone like malachite. Size: 11.25" W x 12" H (28.6 cm x 30.5 cm)
Published in Art of Antiquity, c.f., Chinese Bronzes, Orientations, Colin Mackenzie page 167
Provenance: Ex- Private Washington State Collection acquired in 1966 at Parke-Bernet Gallery
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#113627
- Condition: Near choice, with dark, almost black patina, and very clear design.
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