Lot 213. A rare gilt-bronze finial, Han - Six Dynasties. Length 2 1/4  in., 5.7 cm. Estimate USD 6,000 — 8,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.

cast in the form of a phoenix head, detailed with hooked beak forming a small loop, large protruding eyes and small ears pinned back, all surmounted by a large crest, the hollow cylindrical socket slightly tapered with a lipped rim, wood stand (2).

Provenance: Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Note: Compare a related gilt-bronze finial, cast in the form of a dragon head, from Han to Six Dynasties period, from the Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull Collection, sold in these rooms, 6th December 1983, lot 55; and another from the collection of Ch. Vignier, exhibited in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 92; one without gilding, modeled with a bird head, in the British Museum, London, published in Orvar Karlbeck, 'Selected Objects from Ancient Shou-chou', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 27, Stockholm, 1955, pl. 42, fig. 5; and a larger bronze bird-head finial, set with a small loop, from the Han dynasty, exhibited in op. cit., Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 66.