Edward Luper
Specialist, Chinese Works of Art
Property from the Cunliffe Collection of Chinese Art
Cunliffe藏中國藝術珍品
Cunliffe藏中國藝術珍品
Lot 18
A grey pottery figure of a three-horned mythical beast Han Dynasty
12 May 2016, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £6,250 inc. premium
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A grey pottery figure of a three-horned mythical beast
Han Dynasty
The stocky beast moulded in mid stride, its bovine head lowered, modelled with three flame-like spikes issuing from the neck and flattened bosses along the spine, its long tapered tail curved upward. 28cm (11in) long
The stocky beast moulded in mid stride, its bovine head lowered, modelled with three flame-like spikes issuing from the neck and flattened bosses along the spine, its long tapered tail curved upward. 28cm (11in) long
Footnotes
漢 陶胎鎮墓獸
Provenance: Rolf, Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963), Honorary Keeper of the Far Eastern Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Acquired from William H. Wolff by Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 3 June 1957
Acquired from Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 4 June 1957
The Cunliffe Collection, no.PH12, and thence by descent
來源： 劍橋菲茨威廉博物館東方藝術部名譽主任，Rolf Cunliffe勳爵 (1899-1963)
於1957年6月4日購自倫敦古董商Bluett & Sons Ltd.
Cunliffe收藏，藏品編號PH12，並由後人保存迄今
This fierce-looking animal was interred in Han dynasty tombs and probably deemed to ward off the evil spirits from the afterlife of the tomb occupant. This animal may be one of the fantastic animals described in the Book of Later Han, 後漢書, compiled in the fifth century, as creatures providing contacts with the spirit world, heralding in good fortune, keeping evil at bay, or appearing when auspicious events where about to occur.
A similar creature included in the Schloss Collection, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Sculpture - Han through Tang, 1977, vol. 1, pl. 18. another example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated by S.Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p.57, no. 50.
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