SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH-EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC

Details

A VERY RARE AND IMPORTANT GOLD FELINE-HEAD FINIAL
SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 6TH-EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC
The finial is finely cast and engraved as a tiger or other feline head with glaring eyes and scrolling brows above a large snarling mouth, above the heart-shaped ears. Imitation granulation is used to highlight the various features and also to border the two bands of detached scrolls that encircle the tube which is pierced on either side for attachment.
1 ¼ in.(3.2 cm.) high; weight 34 g

Provenance

C. T. Loo & Co., New York, before 1941.
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK4.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 13.

Literature

The Toledo Museum of Art, Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Chinese Jewelry, Toledo, 1941, no. 95 (one of a pair, on right in illustration).
C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1941, no. 221 (one of a pair, on right in illustration).
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 4.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 4.

Exhibited

Toledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Chinese Jewelry, 9 February-2 March 1941, no. 95 (one of a pair).
New York, C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, 1 November 1941-30 April 1942, no. 221 (one of a pair).
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 4.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 3, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Lot Essay

A virtually identical gold finial in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull was included in the exhibition, Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, no. 101 (as from Frank Caro, New York, successor to C. T. Loo) and in the exhibition, Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, New York, 1971, no. 7, and was subsequently sold at Sotheby's New York, 6 December 1983, lot 71. Another very similar finial is illustrated with the Kempe finial in Exhibition of Chinese Arts, C. T. Loo & Co., New York, 1941-1942, no. 221, where the two are described as a pair.

The narrow bands of dots that highlight the various features and form the borders of the two bands of scrolls encircling the tubular neck of the Kempe finial appear to be imitating the granulation technique which was introduced into China from the Near East. That type of granulation was created by diffusion bonding tiny gold spheres to the surface. The type of imitation granulation that decorates the present finial can also be seen on two other pieces of Spring and Autumn date (770-475 BC) illustrated by Carol Michaelson, Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China's Golden Ages, British Museum, 1999: one a small gold garment hook with duck-head hook excavated in 1992 at Yimen village, Baoji, Shaanxi province, p. 27, no. 5 (left), the other the turquoise-inlaid gold hilt of an iron sword, p. 31, no. 9, from the same excavation.

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