Lot Essay
Compare two very similar plaques or appliques in bronze, one illustrated in the Berlin Exhibition Catalogue, 1929, no. 65, the other from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull included in the exhibition, Arts of the Chou, Stanford University Museum, 1958, Catalogue no. 58
The origin for plaques of this design in bronze and jade may come from decoration to be found on late Shang bronzes, such as the handle of the bronze rectangular ding, "Si Wu Mi, unearthed from Anyang, Henan province, and illustrated in Sculpture of Xia & Shang China, Hong Kong, 1988, pl. 125. On the handle, as on a bronze yue axe, pl. 129, a similar human mask is flanked by dragon heads, but here rather than being only a taotie mask facing outward, the heads are those of an entire dragon and face towards the human head with jaws open
The origin for plaques of this design in bronze and jade may come from decoration to be found on late Shang bronzes, such as the handle of the bronze rectangular ding, "Si Wu Mi, unearthed from Anyang, Henan province, and illustrated in Sculpture of Xia & Shang China, Hong Kong, 1988, pl. 125. On the handle, as on a bronze yue axe, pl. 129, a similar human mask is flanked by dragon heads, but here rather than being only a taotie mask facing outward, the heads are those of an entire dragon and face towards the human head with jaws open