LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD/WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD-1ST CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE TRIPOD BASIN
Late Warring States period/Western Han dynasty, 3rd-1st century BC
The hemispherical body with flat base raised on three supports cast in the round as men standing with arms akimbo and wearing only a short textured skirt, the sides encircled by a slightly raised band interrupted by two monster-mask and loose ring handles, all below an everted rim, with mottled milky green patina
10¼in. (26.6cm.) diam.

Provenance

Acquired before the 1930's.

Lot Essay

This basin with its amusing human supports is similar to excavated examples: one in 1966 in Taian, Gansu province, illustrated in Wenwu, 1990:4, pl. 8, no. 3; and another in 1981 from a Han tomb at Liangnanzhuang, Rongcheng, Shandong province, illustrated in Kaogu, 1994:12, pl. 2, fig. 1. See, also, the similar example in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, dated Late Warring States/Western Han illustrated by d'Argencé, Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, 1977, pl. VIII, where several others excavated from a Western Han tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi province are mentioned.

More from Fine Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Ceramics and Works of Art

View All