Lot 107. An archaic bronze 'tiger' ritual wine vessel, hu, Warring States Period (475-221 BC); 44.8cm (17 3/4in) high. (2). Sold for HKD 121,125 (Est: HKD 180,000 - HKD 220,000). © Bonhams 2001-2022

Of pear shape tapering to a flared slender neck with four small loose ring-handle pendants issuing from bird mask loops, elaborately cast with three broad bands of confronted feline beasts featuring curling horns and small panels of scale patterns on their flanks in profile, each biting onto the tail of a twin bodied serpent in its open jaws, the uppermost frieze flanked by a pair of archaistic bird heads with symmetrical wings and raised bosses, issuing rectangular ring handles finely incised with stylized beaked dragons and slanted scroll motifs, further decorated with shield shaped panels filled with pairs of stylised dragons encircling the lower body above the rope-twist ring foot, the doomed cover further surmounted by three rudimentary bird heads loops against a background of dragon scroll bands filled with leiwen, the surface with an irregular mottled patina of dark green and reddish brown, box.

Provenance: J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, New York
A Southeast Asian private collection, acquired from the above in 1990s
Bonhams Hong Kong, 24 November 2012, lot 603
An Asian private collection.

Published and illustrated: J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, Archaic Chinese Bronze, Jades and Works of Art, New York, 1994, no.55.

Exhibited: J.J. Lally & Co. Oriental Art, Archaic Chinese Bronze, Jades and Works of Art, New York, 1– 25 June 1994.

Note: The rectangular ring handles on the present wine vessel are extremely rare compared with the usual circular ring handles found on bronze hu dated to the Warring States period. See a related bronze 'dragon' hu in the Shanghai Museum collection, dated early Warring States period, which also has four small loose ring-handle pendants issuing from a pushou to hold the cover with strings, illustrated by P.F. Chen in Xiashangzhou qingtongqi yanjiu: Dongzhou, xia (The Study of Archaic Bronzes in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties: VII of Eastern Zhou Dynasty), vol.2, Shanghai, 2004, p.316, pl.567. No exact companion piece appears to have been published with rectangular ring handles, but see a bronze wine vessel in another shape with similar handles, Caihou zhufou, from the late Spring and Autumn period, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), Beijing, 1998, vol.7, p.76, pl.73. See also a 'dragon' hu from the early Warring States period in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, with similar distinctive tiger motif, illustrated in ibid., p.146, pl.141.

Bonhams. GANBEI A TOAST TO CHINESE WINE CULTURE, 30 November 2022, Hong Kong, Admiralty