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A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC image 1
A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC image 2
A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC image 3
A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC image 4
Lot 15

A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER
Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC

The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection: The Inaugural Sale
14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$432,300 inc. premium

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A RARE AND IMPORTANT BRONZE FIGURE OF A TIGER

Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 5th to 3rd century BC
Finely cast in a powerful sinuous crouching pose, looking up to its right with well-defined cheekbones and arched brows above large eyes, the ears pressed back and the tail curling upwards to the rump, the body with intaglio double scrolled lines and lozenges which continue to the chest, the bronze with malachite encrustations throughout.
6 3/4in (17cm) length

Footnotes

東周 紀元前五至三世紀 珍罕青銅瑞虎

Provenance
Property of a Gentleman
Sotheby's London, 19 June 1984, lot 9, reputedly from Jincun near Luoyang, Henan Province
The Oeder Collection
Sotheby's New York, 22 March 2000, lot 66

Exhibited
Ostasiatische Kunst und Chinoiserie, Cologne, 1953
Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle, Cologne, 1968, no. 25

Published
Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt and Jean-Claude Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art: Bronze, Jade, Sculpture, Ceramics, New York, 1980, pl. 43
Willow Hai Chang, 'The Scope of Collections is as Broad as the Universe, Side by Side is the Couple Happily Flying in the Sky. A Record of Mr. & Mrs. Hartman at New York and their Treasures of Chinese Works of Art', Art of China, No. 95, July 1993, p. 46, no. 26

來源
紳士藏品
倫敦蘇富比拍賣行，1984年6月19日，拍品編號9，傳出自河南洛陽金村
Oeder舊藏
紐約蘇富比拍賣行，2000年3月22日，拍品編號66

展覽
德國科隆，Ostasiatische Kunst und Chinoiserie，1953年
德國科隆，Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, Kunsthalle，1968年，展品第25號

出版
Lion-Goldschmidt與Moreau-Gobard合著，Chinese Art: Bronze, Jade, Sculpture, Ceramics，紐約，1980年，圖版編號43
海蔚藍，「收藏天地廣，比翼樂飛翔」—記紐約赫曼伉儷（Mr & Mrs Hartman）及其中國藝術品珍藏，Art of China期刊，1993年7月號，頁46，圖版編號26

A bronze tiger of the same model from the Hellstrom Collection, is illustrated in the Album recording the Karlbeck Syndicate of 1931-32 compiled by the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, December 1933, no. 196, where Karlbeck notes that "It was found at Chintsun, Loyang, together with two other tigers. They probably embellished the cover to a tripod. The legs of this tripod are said to have been acquired by the Toronto Museum. A pair of square lacquer vases and belthooks inlaid with gold and silver are also supposed to have been found with the tigers". The Hellstrom figure, now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is also illustrated and discussed in 'The Exhibition of Early Chinese Bronzes', B.M.F.E.A Stockholm, 1933, pl. XXXIV, and illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1962, pl. 89a. The third figure from the Ernest Erikson Collection (accession number 1985.214.10) is now to be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York and is illustrated by Maxwell K. Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art, New York, 1987, no. 13.

Related reclining bronze animal figures of much smaller size can be seen on bronze ding of the late Spring and Autumn period, for an example with tigers and cows, see Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji, vol. 8, Beijing, 1995, pls. 25-27.

Bronze animals of this type also functioned as the support for bronze vessels. See a cylindrical vessel with three rhino-like beast support, from the Pingshan Sanji Gongshe, M6, in Hebei province, illustrated by Jenny So in Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Volume III, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 1995, p. 66, fig. 120, described as late 4th century BC.

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