LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 3RD CENTURY BC

Details

AN UNUSUAL BRONZE WATER VESSEL
LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 3RD CENTURY BC
The plain, rounded ovoid body raised on four figural supports cast with winged humanoid bodies and beaked bird heads, with a pair of loop handles surmounted by a dragon head with open mouth and openwork horns, the interior fitted towards one end with an openwork divider or strainer cast and incised as pairs of stacked scrolling dragons
9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Acquired from a private collection in Japan in the 1930s.

Lot Essay

A bronze vessel of this shape with loop handles issuing from similar, but less elaborate animal masks with open mouths, dated late Spring and Autumn period, 6th-5th centuries BC, is illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Shang and Chou Dynasty Bronze Wine Vessels, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1989, p. 181, pl. 59.

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