A BRONZE FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST

Details

A BRONZE FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST
Solid-cast in a striding position with head alertly raised and mouth open in a warning roar, the bifurcated wings curling forward and sweeping back from the front haunches and the long tail resting on the left rear leg, with a smooth blackish-grey and olive-green patina showing through extensive olive-green and ferrous oxide encrustation
6 in. long

Provenance

Desmond Gure Collection, no. 215

Literature

Desmond Gure, "Selected Examples from the Jade Exhibition at Stockhom, 1963: A Comparative Study", B.M.F.E.A., No. 36, 1964, pl. 11:1

Exhibited

Stockholm, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Chinese Jades, 1963, no. 178

Lot Essay

The striding pose, with chest thrust forward and head thrown back, is the same as that of the more leonine chimera carved of stone to guard tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty as seen in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu, vol. 2, Beijing, 1985, pls. 85, 88 and 89. Another stylistically similar figure is the large stone chimera in the collection of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City and is illustrated in the Handbook, 1959, p. 183 (bottom) and again by J. and A.H. Burling, Chinese Art, New York, 1953, p. 237 (top)

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