Lot 1252. A gilt-bronze bowl, Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220); 6 5/8 in. (16.8 cm.) diam. Estimate 4,000 - USD 6,000. Price realised USD 6,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

The bowl has deep, rounded sides that rise from a shallow ring foot to the everted rim, and is cast around the exterior with a raised band interrupted by a pair of small mask handles suspending loose rings. The interior, exterior, rim and base are incised with cloud scroll picked out in two colors of gold, and there is a dogtooth band at the base of the interior walls, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Kinpei Takeuchi (1873-1960).
Ryuichi Sano (1889-1977), acquired in Tokyo, 1950s.
Sano Art Museum, Mishima, Japan.

Literature: Sano Bijutsukan zohinsho, Sano Art Museum, 1986, p. 77, no. 102.
Selected Works from the Collection of the Sano Museum of Art, Sano Art Museum, 1991, p. 39, no. 63. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Furniture, Archaic Bronzes and Works of Art, New York, 21 - 22 March 2013