A RARE BRONZE ZOOMORPHIC FINIAL

LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 11TH CENTURY BC

細節

A RARE BRONZE ZOOMORPHIC FINIAL
LATE SHANG DYNASTY, CIRCA 11TH CENTURY BC
The socket pierced with two tiny holes, and surmounted by a mythical creature with parrot-like head, its body formed by two frogs cast on either side and shown as if seen from above, with a small angular tab below the head
3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm.) high

來源

Sotheby's, London, 7 June 1988, lot 6.
Eskenazi Ltd., London, 7 June 1988.

展覽

Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, no. 80.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2002-2006.

登入

瀏覽狀況報告

拍品專文

The use of frogs as decoration on Shang dynasty bronzes is quite rare. Those on the present finial have frog-like bodies, but the heads are more reminiscent of those of cicadas, with pointed beak-like mouths and bead eyes. Frogs of a more realistic type are found on the shoulder of a pou in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by R. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 331, fig. 55.4. See, also, p. 377, fig. 64.7, a you with frog-form terminals to the rope-twist handle, in the collection of the Marchese Talliani di Marchio, Beijing.
For another unusual finial of Zhou date, also cast with composite elements, see the example in the Musée Guimet, illustrated by Minao Hayashi, Studies of Yin and Zhou Bronze Decoration, vol. II, Tokyo, 1986, p. 302, no. 10-166.