Lot Essay
A related bronze bird-shaped fitting, dated early Western Zhou, 10th century BC, is illustrated by J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 176-77, no. 79.
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Across a momentous and remarkable life, Erwin Harris (1922-2013) earned a reputation for surprise. “With Erwin,” the collector’s wife Therese mused, “he just did things other people didn’t do.” The founder of a successful advertising firm, an astute collector of Chinese art, Harris was a man who embraced the world with open arms. His passion for ideas and discovery formed the cornerstone of an extraordinary private assemblage of Chinese art and antiquities – a decades-long pursuit of beauty and knowledge. Acquiring works from notable dealers such as J.J. Lally, Giuseppe Eskenazi, and Charlotte Horstmann, Harris assembled an exceptional private collection of art from northern China, southern Siberia, and central Asia. Diverse in material and period, the works in the Harris Collection are united by their enigmatic visual appeal and the connoisseurship with which they were acquired. Erwin and Therese Harris’s elegant Miami residence became a repository for museum-quality Chinese works of art, including Tang dynasty horses, Shang dynasty bronze ceremonial vessels and Ordos antiquities. As a scholar and connoisseur, Erwin Harris made a point of sharing the wonders of his collection in the public sphere. In 1996, he contributed nearly fifty unique works for the groundbreaking exhibition Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier at the Smithsonian’s Arth M. Sackler Gallery. A revealing examination of intellectual cross-pollination in ancient China, the exhibition demonstrated Harris’ contribution to a largely overlooked area of collecting and academic study. He gifted important works to institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the Freer Gallery of Art. Harris’s extraordinary collection of Chinese art represents a lifetime’s dedication to adventure and connoisseurship – a venerable legacy that continues to resonate.PROPERTY FROM THE ERWIN HARRIS ESTATE
A RARE SMALL BRONZE BIRD-SHAPED FITTING
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 5TH-4TH CENTURY BC
Details
A RARE SMALL BRONZE BIRD-SHAPED FITTING
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 5TH-4TH CENTURY BC
The hollow-cast bird is shown facing forward with head raised, a pattern of small feathers is cast on the chest and stylized feathers are cast in intaglio on the canted wings and spread tail which is of triangular shape. A small attachment loop projects from the underside of each wing and the tail. The bronze has a satiny, blackish patina.
2 in. (5 cm.) long
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 5TH-4TH CENTURY BC
The hollow-cast bird is shown facing forward with head raised, a pattern of small feathers is cast on the chest and stylized feathers are cast in intaglio on the canted wings and spread tail which is of triangular shape. A small attachment loop projects from the underside of each wing and the tail. The bronze has a satiny, blackish patina.
2 in. (5 cm.) long
Provenance
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida, by 1982.