Lot 240. A gilt-bronze tiger-form weight, Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Diameter 2 3/8  in., 6 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the feline cast in a tightly coiled pose with its head supported on its paw resting on its rump, its neck adorned with a collar, its face detailed with a broad snout below oval-shaped protruding eyes and large pointed ears, the details finely incised, all supported on a circular disc base.

Provenance: Nagatani Inc., Chicago, 20th December 1950.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Note: Compare a closely related bronze weight illustrated in Sun Ji, 'Han zhen yishu [The Art of Han Weights]', Wenwu, 1983, no. 6, p. 70, fig. 1, no. 3, where the author discusses the different types of weights and their uses; another, from the collection of Mrs. Nora Lundgren, included in the exhibition Mostra d'arte cinese [Exhibition of Chinese art], Venice, 1954, cat. no. 97, and published in Bo Gyllensvärd, 'Axel and Nora Lundgren's Bequest of Chinese Bronzes, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 49, Stockholm, 1977, pl. 14, fig. b.