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Lot 286
A SMALL WELL-CAST BRONZE BELL
Estimated Value:
1.500 € - 2.500 €
Schätzpreis:
2.000 €
Description:
China, Eastern Zhou Period 481-256 B.C.H. 8,5 cm
Bells of the duo (also nao) type were percussion instruments with the opening facing upward and the handle hollow to be placed on a base or shaft. They were cast in various designs, the smaller ones being set up in groups of three according to ascending pitch and struck with clappers from the outside. This type of bells seems to have been the most original type of musical instruments in China, duo were in widespread use since the middle Shang period and were made in many sizes, pieces more than a meter high are known. Cast bronze, dark and malachite patina, moderate signs of corrosion.
Important Austrian private collection, acquired in Hong Kong in the 1980s
Publ. Zeileis: 'From Shang to Qing - Three and a Half Millennia of Chinese Bronze', 1999, no. 126, p. 334
Minor traces of age, partially green patinated
