Lot 21. A rare and large impressed 'elephant-eye pattern' grey pottery tomb brick, Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The brick 62.8cm (24 6/8in) high x 51.5cm (20 1/4in) wide x 14.2cm (5 9/16in) deep. (2). Sold for 7,650 € (Estimate 4,000-6,000 €). Photo Fabrice Gousset.

The large rectangular brick hollow and impressed with cartouches variously enclosing striding tigers, standing figures carrying spears and swords, trees, chariots, taotie mask-handles, galloping horses, all framed by cross-hatched diaper ground bands, the reverse with a central impressed and embossed diaper-ground with raised bosses surrounded by diamond and cross-hatched borders and a taotie mask-handle cartouche, the sides plain, huali stand. 

Provenance: Robert Rousset, Paris (1901-1981), acquired prior to 1935.
Jean-Pierre Rousset, Paris (1936-2021).

Note: The diagonal lozenge patterns are also known as 'elephant-eye' patterns. According to Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645) in the Zhang wu zhi ('Treatise on Superfluous Things') These were considered desirable on Han or ancient bricks used as part of guqin tables to enhance the sound of the musical instrument. See a related brick on a guqin table, illustrated in C.L.Ma Collection: Traditional Chinese Furniture from the Greater Shanxi Region, Hong Kong, 1999, pp.210-211. Another related brick showing trees, tomb doorways and tethered horse, Han dynasty, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc.no.A.13-1924).

A hollow tomb impressed brick, Han dynasty, is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey, New York, 1996, p.72, no.58. Related grey earthenware pillars with impressed designs, Han dynasty, are also illustrated in Spirit of Han: Ceramics for the After Life, Singapore, 1991, p.76.

Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris. The Robert and Jean-Pierre Rousset Collection of Asian Art: A Century of Collecting - Part 1. Paris, 25 october 2022