A rare silvery bronze kundika and cover, Sui-Early Tang dynasty, 7th century
Lot 2901. A rare silvery bronze kundika and cover, Sui-Early Tang dynasty, 7th century; 9 ½ in. (24.2 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 400,000 - HKD 600,000. Price realised HKD 875,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.
The plain ovoid body raised on a flared shallow foot ring and surmounted by a tall, slender, slightly waisted neck rising to an everted mouth rim, the shoulder applied with an elephant head with raised trunk and open mouth masking a small aperture in the body, the cover cast in relief with a band of petals encircling the base of the nozzle-shaped finial or spout, the pale silvery body with some cloudy patina and ferrous encrustation.
Provenance: Sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2000, lot 187.
Note: A very similar bronze vessel of this very rare type, also with elephant-head spout, but apparently missing its separate nozzle, and shown standing on a bronze circular dish is illustrated in Ceramic Art of the World, Sui and T’ang Dynasties, Tokyo, 1976, vol. 11, p. 291, fig. 122. A bronze bottle of this shape, but without spout, was included in the exhibition, The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 8 January - 17 February 1957, no. 113. The same shape can be seen in two glazed pottery bottles also illustrated in Ceramic Art of the World, p. 291, figs. 123 and 124.
A porcelaneous version of a kundika with elephant-head spout dated to the Sui dynasty, covered with a now crackled glaze and with more bulbous body is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; Gongyi meishu bian; Taoci(The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Arts and Crafts; Ceramics), Shanghai, 1988, vol. 2, p. 14, no. 16. Another clear-glazed white porcelaneous kundika with cup-shaped mouth on the spout and a tall tapering nozzle similar to that of the present example, but also with a more bulbous body, was included in the exhibition, The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, no. 238.
See, also, a related silvery bronze kundika of different body shape and with a human-head cast at the base of the spout, which was sold at Sotheby’s London, 6 June 1995, lot 86.
Christie's. Leisurely Delights of a Transient Life, Hong Kong, 30 May 2018 - SALE 16759