WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)

Details

A RARE TWO-PART BRONZE STEAMER, YAN
WARRING STATES PERIOD (475-221 BC)
The globular lower section raised on three tall legs and with a thin projecting flange at the base of the neck on which the foot ring of the upper bowl-shaped steamer sits, its base pierced with narrow slits forming a cruciform encircled by two rings, both with flat-cast decoration of bands of detached six-petalled forms separated by narrow bands of geometric scrolls and applied with a pair of taotie-mask handles suspending loose rings decorated with commas, with mottled dark olive-grey patina
10 3/8 in. (26.3 cm.) high, fitted wood case, stand

Provenance

Previously offered at Christie's New York, 21 March 2002, lot 69. Acquired in September 1996

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Lot Essay

Both the shape and especially the decoration of this steamer are unusual, and no other vessel with this particular decoration appears to have been published. The upper steamer section is similar in form to that of a steamer in The Art Museum, Princeton University, illustrated by C. Deydier, Les Bronzes Chinois, Paris, 1980, p. 228, no. 81. Like the present steamer it has taotie-mask and ring handles on both sections, but the lower vessel is squat and raised on three truncated conical supports. Other than a raised band encircling each section it is undecorated.

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