ANOTHER SET OF FIVE CHINESE DATED GILT-BRONZE BELLS, BIANZHONG

KANGXI CAST MARKS CORRESPONDING TO 1716 AND OF THE PERIOD

細節

ANOTHER SET OF FIVE CHINESE DATED GILT-BRONZE BELLS, BIANZHONG
KANGXI CAST MARKS CORRESPONDING TO 1716 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 mark, Kangxi wushisi nian zhi, 'made in the fifty-fourth 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. (33cm.) high (5)

來源

By family tradition, Temple of Agriculture, Beijing.

拍品專文

The various notes may be read, nanlu, bei ingzheung, zhonglu, guxi and bei izhe. The cast bells were machined to the right thickness to attain the desired pitch.
Similar bells also dated to the fifty-fourth year of Kangxi (1716) have been sold Christie's, New York, 30 November 1984, lot 554, and Christie's, Hong Kong, 17 May 1989, lot 454 and 26 April 1999, lot 520.

A complete carillon of similar gilt-bronze bells of Kangxi date 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, p. 170 - 71, no. 49. This set bears a date corresponding to 1713.