A RARE SET OF FOUR BRONZE FIGURAL MAT WEIGHTS

EASTERN HAN DYNASTY, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY AD

Details

A RARE SET OF FOUR BRONZE FIGURAL MAT WEIGHTS
EASTERN HAN DYNASTY, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY AD
Each cast as a man with a bristly mustache and wearing long-sleeved robes, each shown in a different seated or kneeling position: one seeming to doze with right leg outstretched and head lolling forward, his robe slipped off his left shoulder; one with both hands on his knees and his mouth wide open in laughter or song; one with smiling expression and right hand raised; the fourth leaning on his raised left knee as he holds a disc-like object in his right hand, his right sleeve slipped off the shoulder and arm, and hanging to the side; all filled with casting core, with mottled dark grey patina and malachite and reddish-brown encrustation
Tallest 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm.) high, box (4)

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong, 1990.

Exhibited

The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes, Singapore, 2000, no. 102.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2002-2006.

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Lot Essay

These figures may represent recitative figures or Liubo players. A similar group of four bronze figures, illustrated by M. Wang et al., in the exhibition catalogue, A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China, 2006, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, p. 111, no. 12, was described as Liubo players. Another set of similar weights excavated in Lingtai, Gansu province, found with three Liubo game pieces, is illustrated in Kaogu, 1979:2, pl. 7, fig. 3. See, also, the set of four figures unearthed in 1971, Xian City, Shaanxi province, illustrated in Treasures from the Han, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1990, p. 59. Another set in the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, is illustrated by C. Deydier, Chinese Bronzes, Paris, 1980, p. 133, pl. 102.

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