Lot 808. A gilt-bronze 'mythical beast' weight, Han-Six Dynasties. Length 2 1/4  in., 5.7 cm. Estimate USD 30,000 — 50,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.

crouching with the muscular body twisting sharply and the head turned to one side, the face with a menacing expression with the mouth open, the lips curling back in a snarl, and the eyes wide, a pair of ridged horns pressing against the neck, tufts of fur covering the body and sweeping outward from the elbows, a pair of feathered wings tucked against the torso, wood stand (2).

Provenance: Von Bergen Auction, Scranton, 1958.
Collection of Robert L. Shalkop (b. 1922), and thence by descent.

Note: The present chimera-form weight has a richly textured coat and an animated expression that characterizes cast-bronze animal-form figures in the Han to Six Dynasties period. Bronze weights of this type include a pair in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (coll. no. B60B808 and B60B821); one from the Schoenlicht Collection and another from the Stoclet Collection, both illustrated in H. F. E. Visser, Asiatic Art, New York, 1952, pl. 68; one from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat exhibited in Art of the Six Dynasties, China Institute, New York, 1975, cat. no. 39; one exhibited in Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society and Hong Kong Museum of Art, New York, 1990, cat. no 117; and a more elaborate version illustrated in Arts of Ancient China, J. J. Lally & Co., March-April 2006, cat. no. 18. Compare also examples sold at auction, including one from the collection of S. E. Monsieur Jean Daridan, sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1979, lot 49; one sold in these rooms, 7th November 1980, lot 9; and two from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull, sold in these rooms, 6th December 1983, lot 59 and 61.