Lot 29. A rare silver and gilt-decorated bronze cylindrical tripod vessel and a cover (zun), early Western Han dynasty, 2nd - 1st century. Height 8 1/4  in., 21 cm. Lot sold 40,000 USD (Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD). Photo Sotheby's

the body raised on three crouching bear-form feet and cast with raised bands at the rims and mid-body, the sides set with opposing taotie masks and loose ring handles, the later domed cover with two raised bands and fixed with three long-tailed birds encircling a raised ring surrounding a peacock finial, the body incised and decorated in silver on a partially gilded ground with sawtooth and scalloped bands around the middle and foliate scrolls in the other registers imitating lacquer prototypes, wood stand, Japanese wood box (4). 

Provenance: Japanese Collection, formed prior to World War II.

Note: This zun belongs to a rare and important group (previously known as lien) of Han dynasty bronzes decorated in silver and gold. A very similar zun of identical size, from the collection of the Staatlichen Museen in Berlin is illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes From Collections in Europe and America, Part I, Vol. III, Osaka, 1933, no.231.  Another vessel of this type, but with different cover and feet from the Freer Gallery is illustrated, ibid. no. 232; and another also with birds on the cover, but a different finial is illustrated in The Collection of Old Bronzes of Baron Sumitomo, Kyoto, 1934, no. 167, pl. XLII.  A smaller version, with similar decoration, but with glass inlay, from the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Collection and exhibited in the Portland Art Museum, is illustrated in Donald Jenkins, Mysterious Spirits, Strange Beasts, Earthly Delights, Portland, 2005, p. 9, where it is referred to as a wine warmer. The author also notes that the vessel has the classic characteristics of vessels made for the aristocracy. A bronze zun without gold and silver decoration from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections was sold at Christie's New York, 18th March 2009, lot 219.