A Rare Gold and Silver-Inlaid Bronze Animal-Form Vessel

SONG/YUAN DYNASTY

Details

A Rare Gold and Silver-Inlaid Bronze Animal-Form Vessel
Song/Yuan Dynasty
The mythical beast inlaid with a pattern of scrolls shown standing four-square with head facing forward and ears pricked, the area around the muzzle and along the cheeks raised, as is the collar, pierced through the mouth, the back with a hinged circular cover cast in the form of a recumbent bird with backward-turned head flanked by its wings, the long tail held close to the body issuing from two silver wire spirals
13¾in. (35cm.) long

Literature

M. Goedhuis, Chinese and Japanese Bronzes, A.D. 1100-1900, London, 1989, no. 81.

Lot Essay

This vessel and others like it are the result of a tremendous interest in archaic bronzes during the Northern Song period, brought about by a renewed interest in Confucianism and anything associated with the rituals of the Bronze Age. For other archaistic vessels of similar form and date, but with different inlaid decoration see, Chinese and Japanese Bronzes, Michael Goedhuis, London, 1989, no. 80 and one in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, Toronto, 1992, no. 53. See, also, the gold and silver-inlaid example of Song/Ming date sold in these rooms, 22 March 1999, lot 75. The archaic inspiration for these vessels is embodied by a Warring States tapir-form vessel inlaid with gold, silver and turquoise illustrated in A Selection of Archaeological Finds of The People's Republic of China, Beijing, 1976, pl. 44.
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 466k66 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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