Lot 35. A rare gilt-bronze 'toad' weight, Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD); 6.6cm long x 6cm wide (2 5/8in long x 2 3/8in wide). Estimate HK$ 400,000-600,000. Sold for HK$ 500,000 (€ 59,402). Courtesy Bonhams.

Heavily cast poised on all fours in leaping stance with head held high, above a square platform engraved with scrolling patterns on all sides.

Note: The depiction of toads dating to the Han dynasty are rare. See, however, a related bronze toad-shaped weight, Han dynasty, from the British Museum, London, museum no.1947,0712.384. For another related example see R.Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Sculpture: The Avery Brundage Collection. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, New York, 1974, p.61, no.17. Animal-shaped three-dimensional gilt-bronze weights were produced in the Han dynasty also in the form of bears, such as the exceptional one from the Robert Hatfield Ellsworth collection, sold at Christie's New York, 17 March 2015, lot 1, and in the form of stags, using cowrie shells to form their body, as demonstrated by a pair dated to the Western Han dynasty, sold in the same rooms, 16 October 2001, lot 181.

Metal weights, including animal-shaped ones such as the present lot, were used by scholars of ancient China who often sat on mats of woven bamboo strips, to anchor the corners of the unfurled mat to prevent it from folding back on itself; for a discussion of mat weights, see M.C.Wang, A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China, Boston, 2006.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 3 December 2015