A RARE SET OF FIVE CHINESE DATED GILT-BRONZE BELLS, BIANZHONG

KANGXI CAST MARKS CORRESPONDING TO 1714 AND OF THE PERIOD

Details

A RARE SET OF FIVE CHINESE DATED GILT-BRONZE BELLS, BIANZHONG
KANGXI CAST MARKS CORRESPONDING TO 1714 AND OF THE PERIOD
Each of heavily cast barrel form, decorated in high relief with horizontal bands of bosses alternating with the Daoist trigrams flanking four vertical panels, one enclosing the reign date Kangxi wushier nian zhi, 'made in the fifty-second year of Kangxi', one enclosing the bell's tone, and two enclosing an archaistic dragon beneath a ruyi head, all above a band of large flat discs, the flat top surmounted by a suspension handle formed by two addorsed side-by-side dragons
13 in. (33 cm.) high (5)

Provenance

By family tradition, Temple of Agriculture, Beijing.

Lot Essay

The various notes may be read, ushe, bei nanlu, mengbin, linzheung and ingzheung. The cast bells were machined to the right thickness to attain the desired pitch.

A complete carillon of similar gilt-bronze bells from the Palace Museum, Beijing, was included in the exhibition, La Cité interdite; Vie publique et privée des empereurs de Chine (1644 - 1911), Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1996 - 97, pp. 170 - 71, no. 49. As with the present bells, this set is dated to the 52nd year of Kangxi. A later, Qianlong period, carillon of gilt-bronze bells of the same design as the present Kangxi bells used for Confucian ritual music inside the Dacheng dian, Confucian Temple, Beijing, is illustrated by B. Doar in 'The Preservation of Beijing's Confucian Temple', Orientations, vol. 26, July August 1995, p. 63.

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