China. Well cast, the high-shouldered body supported on a spreading foot and rising to a tall waisted neck with galleried rim, the shoulder set with a pair of dragon-form handles incised with scroll designs, the neck and feet cast with narrow flanges, the shoulder with a evenly spaced alternating whorl medallions and notched flanges. A third dragon-form handle is cast to the lower body on one side centering the handles.

Provenance: From the estate of Philip Pearlstein. Philip Martin Pearlstein (1924-2022) was an American painter best known for his Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figural painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art. In 1950, Philip Pearlstein married Dorothy Cantor, with Andy Warhol in the wedding party. During the 1950s, Pearlstein exhibited abstract expressionist landscape paintings. Around 1958, he began to attend weekly figure drawing sessions at the studio of Mercedes Matter, and in 1961 he began to make paintings of nude couples based upon his drawings, painting directly from the model in a less painterly and more realistic style from 1962 onwards. He taught at Brooklyn College from 1963 until his retirement in 1988. Pearlstein's work is in many museum collections in the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Condition: Very good condition with expected ancient wear, casting flaws, small nicks, light scratches, minor corrosion. The bronze is covered overall in a naturally grown, dark patina with scattered malachite and soil encrustations.

Weight: 4.4 kg
Dimensions: Height 39 cm

Literature comparison:
A line drawing of a near-identical lei vessel is published in the Song dynasty bronze catalogue Xuanhe bogutu, and reproduced in the Gujin Tushu Jicheng (Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China), commissioned by the Kangxi Emperor in 1700 and completed in 1725, as well as the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries), commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in 1772 and completed in 1782. The form of the present lot is based on an archaic prototype lei, see one example with similar whorl medallions decorations and dragon-form handles, but with a shorter foot and lacking the flanges of the present lot, 44.5 cm high, dated Shang to Zhou dynasty, 12^th-10^th century BC, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 59.194.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 3289
Price: USD 12,500 or approx. EUR 15,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large archaistic bronze jar, lei, 17^th-18^th century
Expert remark: Compare the related form and manner of casting, albeit with more extensive decoration than the present lot. Note the later dating and the size (48.2 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19 January 2023, lot 3018
Estimate: HKD 500,000 or approx. EUR 58,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An inscribed archaistic malachite-and-silver inlaid bronze wine vessel, lei, Song dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the related form and decoration with similar handles and whorl medallions. Note the inlays, inscription, and size (33 cm).