18th Oct, 2024 11:00
TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism
380
A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE ‘FIGHTING BEARS’ MAT WEIGHT, HAN DYNASTY
Sold for €7,800
including Buyer's Premium
China, 202 BC-220 AD. Superbly cast, the dynamic composition portraying two bears fighting, with one sinking its teeth into the side of the other. As the wounded bear opens its mouth in a cry of pain, it twists its body towards the attacker. Sumptuously inlaid in gold and silver sheet and wire with geometric and scrolling designs as well as minute strips along the tail simulating fur.
Provenance: From an old French private collection, acquired in the 1990s, and thence by descent in the family.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, areas of corrosion, nicks, scratches, losses to inlays. The bronze is covered in a rich, naturally grown patina with malachite and cuprite encrustations.
Weight: 411.5 g
Dimensions: Length 6.6 cm
Expert’s note:
In her discussion of a similar weight housed in the British Museum (see literature comparison below), Jessica Rawson notes that this life and death struggle of two animals is very different from the static, almost timeless, stance of creatures depicted on early bronzes and that animals in combat were favorite subjects in the Near East and among China's nomadic neighbors, such as the peoples whose lords were buried in the frozen tombs of Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains of south Siberia. It is probable that nomadic woodwork, textiles and bronze were known to the Chinese, who adapted similar scenes from them for the inlaid bronzes.
Notably, the base of the present lot is filled with an ancient bitumen mixture to increase its weight. The piece in the auction result comparison below is filled with the exact same mixture of bitumen.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related gold and silver inlaid mat weight depicting fighting bears, 9.4 cm long, dated ca. 3rd century BC, in the British Museum, accession number 1982,0402.1. Compare the Han dynasty gold and silver inlaid 'ram and tiger' mat weight of closely related form, now in the collection of the Portland Art Museum, illustrated by Jenkins, Mysterious Sprits, Strange Beasts, Earthly Delights: Early Chinese Art from the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection, Portland, 2005, p. 60.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 21 March 2022, lot 210
Price: USD 16,562 or approx. EUR 16,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare inlaid bronze ‘contending bears’ mat weight, Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, modeling, and decoration with similar gold and silver inlays. Note the closely related size (6.8 cm).
China, 202 BC-220 AD. Superbly cast, the dynamic composition portraying two bears fighting, with one sinking its teeth into the side of the other. As the wounded bear opens its mouth in a cry of pain, it twists its body towards the attacker. Sumptuously inlaid in gold and silver sheet and wire with geometric and scrolling designs as well as minute strips along the tail simulating fur.
Provenance: From an old French private collection, acquired in the 1990s, and thence by descent in the family.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, encrustations, areas of corrosion, nicks, scratches, losses to inlays. The bronze is covered in a rich, naturally grown patina with malachite and cuprite encrustations.
Weight: 411.5 g
Dimensions: Length 6.6 cm
Expert’s note:
In her discussion of a similar weight housed in the British Museum (see literature comparison below), Jessica Rawson notes that this life and death struggle of two animals is very different from the static, almost timeless, stance of creatures depicted on early bronzes and that animals in combat were favorite subjects in the Near East and among China's nomadic neighbors, such as the peoples whose lords were buried in the frozen tombs of Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains of south Siberia. It is probable that nomadic woodwork, textiles and bronze were known to the Chinese, who adapted similar scenes from them for the inlaid bronzes.
Notably, the base of the present lot is filled with an ancient bitumen mixture to increase its weight. The piece in the auction result comparison below is filled with the exact same mixture of bitumen.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related gold and silver inlaid mat weight depicting fighting bears, 9.4 cm long, dated ca. 3rd century BC, in the British Museum, accession number 1982,0402.1. Compare the Han dynasty gold and silver inlaid 'ram and tiger' mat weight of closely related form, now in the collection of the Portland Art Museum, illustrated by Jenkins, Mysterious Sprits, Strange Beasts, Earthly Delights: Early Chinese Art from the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection, Portland, 2005, p. 60.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 21 March 2022, lot 210
Price: USD 16,562 or approx. EUR 16,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare inlaid bronze ‘contending bears’ mat weight, Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, modeling, and decoration with similar gold and silver inlays. Note the closely related size (6.8 cm).
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