A RARE YUNNANESE BRONZE CEREMONIAL AXE

Estimated Value:

2.000 € - 3.000 €

Schätzpreis:

4.000 €

Description:

China, Han dynasty
H. 36 cm
This ritual bronze bears in low relief one of the so rarely found on axes on axes from Yunnan, but very characteristic human faces within a circular within a round medallion, here not as usual on the shaft, but on one of the sides. but on one of the side faces. The face itself is also clearly different from other
stylized representations by the large, triangular tear sacs under the wide open eyes, the strongly curved eyebrows. The strongly arched eyebrows merge evenly into the narrow nose, which is drawn far down and under which, slightly open, lies the pointed oval mouth. The shaft is relieved on both sides by a broad, geometrical On both sides of the shaft is a broad, geometric ornamental band, which seems to conceal another face, albeit one that is very largely stylized and thus difficult to recognize. Bronze cast in two parts, evenly thin green patina, both sides ornamentally pierced,
Important Austrian private collection, acquired in the early 1990s from E. & J. Frankel in New York, according to them from an old New York private collection, collected in the 1920s
Publ. Zeileis: "From Shang to Qing - Three and a Half Millennia of Chinese Bronze," 1999, no. 123, pp. 328-329
Cf. the style of bronzes depicted in 'Yunnan Qingtong Qi', especially weapons such as nos. 148 and 149, as well as the various human figures, which generally have similar sized stylized eyes and often earrings
Green patinated, very slightly chipped

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