Lot 152
152
A RARE YUNNAN BRONZE COWRIE SHELL CONTAINER
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF NIKOLA NIKOLOV
A RARE YUNNAN BRONZE COWRIE SHELL CONTAINER

WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 8)

Details
A RARE YUNNAN BRONZE COWRIE SHELL CONTAINER
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 8)
The deep spreading cylindrical jar raised on three small flared supports and applied with a pair of ear-shaped strap handles cast with herringbone pattern, the interior with a slotted transverse bar below the rim, the flat cover with canted outer edge and a central aperture fitted with a long rod surmounted by a mandarin duck and pierced at the other end, extensive malachite and azurite encrustation allover and with remains of cowrie shells in the interior
11 5/8 in. (29.5 cm.) high

Lot Essay

Similar bronze cowrie containers of slightly more elongated form, embellished with animal figures on the cover, have been excavated from Dian culture sites in Yunnan, and have been dated to the Warring States period. Compare the cowrie container with a standing ox on the cover unearthed at Mount Lijia, Jiangchuan, Yunnan in 1972, now in the Yunnan Provincial Museum, and illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji - 14 - Dian and Kunming, Beijing, 1993, p. 28, no. 34. Also illustrated, no. 167, is a bronze mandarin duck entwined with snakes that was excavated at Shizhaishan, Jinning, Yunnan in 1956, and dated to the Western Han period, that closely resembles the mandarin duck finial on the present cover.

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