A SMALL RARE BRONZE CHIMERA-FORM VESSEL

Estimated Value:

4.000 € - 6.000 €

Schätzpreis:

12.000 €

Description:

China, Han to Six dynasties period, ca. 4th - 3rd c. BC
L. 11 cm
The vessel is hollow cast and depicts a powerful mythical creature (bixie) standing in a semi-squatting position, head facing forward, with mouth open and tongue hanging out and pointed ears above the backward curved horns. The body is completely covered with malachite and azurite encrustations. A tube protrudes from the middle of the back.
Important Austrian private collection, according to records acquired in the 1980s from Susan Chen in Hongkong
Publ. Zeileis: "From Shang to Qing - Three and a half millennia of Chinese bronze", 1999, No.138, pp. 346-347
Compare with the recently sold bronze from the Hotung collection at Sotheby's Hongkong, 8.10.2022, lot 22
These censers are characteristic of the period, but are rare and sought after. Very similar specimens can be found in the Freer Gallery in Washing ton, in the Musée Guimet in Paris, in: The Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, cat. fig,212 and: Treasures of the Han, catalogue of an exhibition at the Empress Place, Singapore 1990/1, p.73, a piece practically identical except for the missing human figure kneeling on the back of the animal here is in the exhibition catalog: Maastricht 1993 by Gisèle Croes, Brussels, pp.42-43 described and illustrated
Very slightly chipped

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