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Lot 256
A LARGE ANIMAL-SHAPED BRONZE HANDLE
Estimated Value:
1.500 € - 2.500 €
Hammer Price:
Description:
China, Eastern Zhou Dynasty, probably Spring and Autumn period 722-481 BCL. 33,8 cm
The elongated, highly stylized animal stands firmly on relatively short and stocky legs, which are trimmed with spiral curls and end in pointed claws; it turns its head, which is perched on a long neck, backwards; its elongated tail is curled at the end. The small, pointed ears resemble horns, the spherical eyes appear set on and the muzzle is curled up over the mouth. Whether this is supposed to be a tiger, lion or dragon is hard to decide. The clay core from the casting is largely preserved. Cast bronze, large areas of malachite patina and some earth encrustation.
Important Austrian private collection, acquired through Galerie Asboth Vienna, Sotheby's London, 8. 6.1993, lot 115
Publ. Zeileis: 'From Shang to Qing - Three and a Half Millennia of Chinese Bronze', 1999, no. 113, p. 313
Similar zoomorphic handles on large bronze Hu are known from the Spring and Autumn periods. Two identical ones in the National Palace Museum in Taipei were on display there in 1989 in the exhibition 'Bronze Wine Vessels of Shang and Chou Dynasties', published in the catalog on plates 69 and 70
Traces of age
