The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung. Lot 22. A bronze rider on a chimera, Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD); h. 16.9 cm. Lot sold: 1,512,000 HKD (Estimate: 800,000 - 1,200,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

the rider depicted with long rabbit ears, thick lips, almond-shaped eyes framed by bushy brows and a bulbous nose, his hair neatly combed and detailed with striation, balancing a cylinder on the top of his head, his slim body bare save for a wide belt, his arms outstretched, holding a beaker in his right hand, the winged beast depicted with prominent round eyes framed by arched brows, crowned by a pair of ribbed and curved horns between pointed ears, its mouth open in a ferocious roar revealing its sharp fangs, standing foursquare accentuating its broad shoulders and muscular haunches, the ridged tail gently curved to the left.

Provenance: J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 14th March 1990.

Literature: Arts of Ancient China, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 1990, cat. no. 9.

Exhibited: Arts of Ancient China, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 1990.
British Museum, London, on loan, 1998-2015.

Note: Ingeniously sculpted as a lively rider balancing on the back of a fantastic beast, the present lot belongs to a small and distinctive group of Han dynasty bronze utensils which are both decorative and functional. An almost identical object was excavated in Hefei, Anhui, with the figure holding a shallow pan in its left hand, indicating it was likely made to serve as an oil lamp, and is preserved in the Anhui Provincial Museum, illustrated in Wang Ziyun, Zhongguo diaosu yishu shi [History of Chinese sculptural art], Beijing, 1988, pl. 156. Another example without a lamp pan, formerly in the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, was exhibited in Art Treasures from Shanghai and Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1996-7, cat. no. 10, and later sold at Christie's New York, 24th March 2011, lot 1261. See also a related figural group, modelled as a hatted man supporting two lamp dishes and mounting a furious single-horned bovine, sold at Christie's New York, 19th March 2021, lot 809.

Sotheby's. HOTUNG The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 8 October 2022