Pointe de Lance en Bronze, Mao, Dynastie des Zhou Orientaux, époque des Royaumes Combattants, ca. VIe-IVe siècle avant J.-C.

21 janvier 2019

Pointe de Lance en Bronze, Mao, Dynastie des Zhou Orientaux, époque des Royaumes Combattants, ca. VIe-IVe siècle avant J.-C.

Lot 44. Pointe de Lance en Bronze, Mao, Dynastie des Zhou Orientaux, époque des Royaumes Combattants, ca. VIe-IVe siècle avant J.-C.; Long. 27,7 cm. Estimation 20,000 — 30,000 EUR. Lot Vendu 105,000 EUR. Courtesy Sotheby's 2015.

en forme de flamme pointue, parcourue des deux côtés d'un large bourrelet central courant jusqu'à une tête de monstre sur chaque face au niveau de la douille, la gueule ouverte formant trous de fixation, les côtés de la lame biseautés, entièrement décorée de motifs de losanges, les bords tranchants laissés lisses, le bronze couvert d'une patine verte, azurite et rouille avec des incrustations, D.W 34/25.

Exhibited: Bronzes Chinois des Dynasties Tcheou, T'sin & Han, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1934, no. 80.
International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, Royal Academy of Art, November 28, 1935 - March 7th, 1936, cat. no. 175.

Literature: O. Janse,'Le Style du Houai et ses Affinités. Notes à propos de quelques Objets de la Collection David-Weill', in Revue des Arts Asiatiques: Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. VIII, no. 3 (1934), pl. LIII:2.
Georges Salles, Bronzes Chinois des Dynasties Tcheou, T'sin & Han, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1934, cat. no. 80 (not illustrated).
Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-1936, cat. no. 175.
Max Loehr, Chinese Bronze Age Weapons. The Werner Jannings Collections in the Chinese National Palace Museum, Peking, Ann Arbor, 1956, fig. 41 E.

Note: Bronze spear- and lance heads were found in large numbers in richly furnished tombs of the Warring States period in the Huai valley covering a geographical area including parts of present-day Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces, areas associated with the southern kingdoms of Wu, Yue and Chu during the Warring States period. At the time the present lance head from the David-Weill Collection was acquired in 1934, it was reputedly discovered in Shouzhou, Anhui province, see Olof Janse, 'Le style du Houai et sets Affinities. Notes a propos de quelques Objects de la Collection David-Weill', in Revue des Arts Asiatiques: Annales du Musee Guimet, vol. VIII, no. 3 (1934), p. 174. Numerous examples from both museum and private collections are illustrated and analysed by Orvar Karlbeck in,'Selected Objects from Ancient Shou-Chou', in Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 27, 1955, pl. 3:1-14. Karlbeck refers to an identical lance head from the collection of Jean-Pierre Dubosc, illustrated in Jean-Pierre Dubosc, Mostra d'Arte Cinese, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 65.

The grid of intersecting double-lines and diamond-shaped lozenges in a darker coloured metal on the surface of this particular spearhead also appears on a related example now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has been subject to a technical analysis, compare W. Thomas Chase, Ancient Chinese Bronze Art. Casting the Precious Sacral Vessel, New York, 1991, p. 74.

Sotheby's. Trésors de la Chine ancienne de la collection David David-Weill, Paris, 16 Dec 2015