Lot 9811. A rare gilt-bronze ‘twin bird’ sleeve weight, Tang dynasty, 7th-8th century; 7.6 cm. Lot Sold 4,096,000 HKD (Estimate 1,500,000 - 3,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026
 

Provenance: Collection of W.W. Winkworth (1897–1991), London.
Collection of Giovanni Fabbri, Milan.
Sotheby’s London, 10th June 1986, lot 36.
J.J. Lally & Co., New York.
Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman.
Christie’s New York, 17th September 2010, lot 1008.

Exhibited: Mostra d'Arte Cinese / Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, p. 56, cat. no. 162.
Chinese Works of Art, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, May 1988, cat. no. 28.
Christie’s New York, 13–26 March 2001.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003-December 2004.

Literature: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 31 (detail).

Note: This small, charming gilt-bronze group depicts two birds nestled close in tender embrace, their claws interlocked, tail feathers entwined, and beaks gently touching. One, smaller and more sheltered, leans softly into the other; the pair forming a heart-like shape that feels surprisingly instinctive. The sculptor’s hand animates the cool, inert bronze with a spirit of warmth, tenderness, and vitality, an affection that bridges species, resonates across time, and speaks to the realm beyond.

Of the few surviving examples, most are now held in prominent museum collections or can be traced to notable early Western collectors. The present piece, once in the collection of W. W. Winkworth, was exhibited in the landmark Mostra d’Arte Cinese in Venice in 1954.

Compare one from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, attributed to the Six Dynasties period and now in the British Museum (acc. no. 1936,1118.250), illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Histoire des Arts anciens de la Chine. II. L’époque Han et les Six Dynasties, Paris, 1929, pl. 116 (b, c); another formerly in the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. no. 1926.1828); a third from the collection of Mrs Walter Sedgwick, sold in our London rooms, 2nd July 1968, lot 30; and a further example included in Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels and Early Ceramics, Eskenazi, London, 1973, cat. no. 20.

Sotheby's. Zoomorphia: Animal Forms in Ancient China | Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 5 May 2026