17th Oct, 2024 11:00
TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism
58
AN ARCHAIC BRONZE DRAGON-HEAD TERMINAL, EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY
Sold for €2,080
including Buyer's Premium
China, late 11th to early 10th century BC. Well cast as a bottle-horn dragon head with wide disk-form eyes below thick brows centered by a lozenge symbol, flanked by alert ears and long horns neatly incised with scroll and sawtooth motifs which continue to the vertical section of the handle.
Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York. Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer, who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) already served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple married in 1975, and together they built a renowned collection for over half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013) as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Alan Hartman has been described as the greatest antiques dealer of our generation, and was widely recognized as a world authority in Chinese jade, bronzes, and Asian works of art.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Expected surface wear, obvious losses, casting irregularities, minor nicks. The bronze with a fine, smooth, naturally grown patina with malachite encrustations.
Weight: 332.6 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 7.3 cm (excl. stand) and 13.3 cm (incl. stand)
The animal head is attached to the fragmentary handle decorated with archaic designs in shallow relief and cast with a circular aperture by which it is mounted on an old associated velvet stand from the Hartmans’ Rare Art Gallery. (2)
Expert’s note:
The beast depicted on this fragment of an arched handle as typically found on ritual bronze you vessels is commonly identified as a bottle-horn dragon. This animated bovine face was developed by early Western Zhou bronze casters to decorate various vessels often used as wine containers in ritual ceremonies related to a family’s ancestors. Compare a closely related animal-mask terminal fitted on to the arched handle of a ritual bronze, you, dated to the early Western Zhou dynasty, at Bonhams London, 13 May 2021, lot 15.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 March 2017, lot 807
Price: USD 35,000 or approx. EUR 42,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pair of bronze dragon-head terminals, early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th-10th century BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and decoration. Note the smaller size (5.1 cm) and that the lot comprises a pair.
China, late 11th to early 10th century BC. Well cast as a bottle-horn dragon head with wide disk-form eyes below thick brows centered by a lozenge symbol, flanked by alert ears and long horns neatly incised with scroll and sawtooth motifs which continue to the vertical section of the handle.
Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York. Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer, who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) already served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple married in 1975, and together they built a renowned collection for over half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013) as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Alan Hartman has been described as the greatest antiques dealer of our generation, and was widely recognized as a world authority in Chinese jade, bronzes, and Asian works of art.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Expected surface wear, obvious losses, casting irregularities, minor nicks. The bronze with a fine, smooth, naturally grown patina with malachite encrustations.
Weight: 332.6 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 7.3 cm (excl. stand) and 13.3 cm (incl. stand)
The animal head is attached to the fragmentary handle decorated with archaic designs in shallow relief and cast with a circular aperture by which it is mounted on an old associated velvet stand from the Hartmans’ Rare Art Gallery. (2)
Expert’s note:
The beast depicted on this fragment of an arched handle as typically found on ritual bronze you vessels is commonly identified as a bottle-horn dragon. This animated bovine face was developed by early Western Zhou bronze casters to decorate various vessels often used as wine containers in ritual ceremonies related to a family’s ancestors. Compare a closely related animal-mask terminal fitted on to the arched handle of a ritual bronze, you, dated to the early Western Zhou dynasty, at Bonhams London, 13 May 2021, lot 15.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 March 2017, lot 807
Price: USD 35,000 or approx. EUR 42,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pair of bronze dragon-head terminals, early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th-10th century BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and decoration. Note the smaller size (5.1 cm) and that the lot comprises a pair.
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