A SET OF THREE ASH-GLAZED PROTO-PORCELAIN BELLS, YONG ZHONG

WARRING STATES PERIOD

Details

A SET OF THREE ASH-GLAZED PROTO-PORCELAIN BELLS, YONG ZHONG
Warring States Period
Of lenticular section, each side decorated in imitation of a bronze prototype with a central panel flanked by alternating rows of protruding nipples and impressed designs, all bordered by narrow rows of small applied bosses above a panel impressed with S-scrolls, with impressed designs on the flat top and on the tapering handle above a rounded collar and projecting angular loop, irregularly covered with a mottled ash glaze of olive tone
11.3/8in. to 12.3/8in. (28.8 to 31.4cm.) high, stands (3)

Lot Essay

These bells belong to a group of interesting early funerary wares made as substitutes for objects made of more precious material such as bronze or lacquer. The decoration of stamped spirals is also derived from bronze ornament. Many examples of these proto-porcelain bells have been published, the most similar being a group of five illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics I; Neolithic to Liao, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 9 and a single example illustrated in Ancient Chinese Ceramics from The Neolithic Period to The Western Han, Uragami Sokyu-do, Japan, 1991, p. 8 and cover. Other examples are in the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, illustrated by Mino and Tsang in the Catalogue of the exhibition, Ice and Green Clouds, Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1987, no. 7, where it is mentioned that a similar, slightly larger bell found at Yuwanglin, Zhenhaixian, Zhejiang in 1955, is now in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 35, no. 31; one included in the Special Exhibition of Early Chinese Greenware, National Museum of History, Taiwan, 1966, Catalogue, no. 19; and another discussed by W. Hochstadter: 'Pottery and Stonewares of Shang, Chou and Han', B.M.F.E.A., Stockholm, No. 24, 1952, no. 104.

For a bronze prototype, see the group of three bells illustrated in Xin Zhongguo de kaogu shouhuo, Beijing, 1962, no. 2.