AN UNUSUAL BRONZE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VESSEL AND COVER, LIAN

WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 8)

Details

AN UNUSUAL BRONZE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD VESSEL AND COVER, LIAN
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 8)
Made in imitation of metal-mounted lacquer prototypes, the body raised on three cabriole legs and cast in low relief with bands at the rims and mid-body, with a pair of taotie mask and loose ring handles, the domed cover with two bands encircling a central quatrefoil motif and applied with three upright bird-form handles that become supports when the cover is inverted, the interior of the cover delicately painted in polychrome with a peacock encircled by decorative bands painted in black and green line, all on a red ground, the interior and base also painted red, with traces of two deer amidst undulating lines on the base, with mottled green patina
8¼ in. (21 cm.) diam.

Provenance

J.T. Tai & Co., New York, 1965.

Literature

R. Poor, Bronze Ritual Vessels of Ancient China, New York, 1968.

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Lot Essay

A similar covered, but gilded, lian, similarly painted on the underside of the cover with a peacock, and on the base with a deer amidst undulating scrolls, is illustrated by W.P. Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. 1, London, 1929, pls. LIII (A77), and LIV (A78 and A79). Another in the Sumitomo Collection is illustrated in Sen-oku Sei-sho, (The Collection of Old Bronzes), Kyoto, 1934, pl. XLII.

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