Lot 543. A rare archaic bronze ‘gourd’ vase and cover, hu, Eastern Zhou dynasty; 29.5cm high. Estimate HK$60,000 - 80,000. Sold for HK$ 625,000 (€ 74,499). Courtesy Bonhams.

The bulbous flask-shaped body supported on a simulated rope-twist foot, rising to a straight neck offset on one side of the shoulder, intricately cast with three wide bands of dense interlocking abstract motifs on the lower body and an additional band at the neck, cast on one side with a convex bar handle decorated with keyfret scrolls, attached by a loose interlinked chain to the tail of the cover, the cover naturalistically cast as a feathery bird with wing feathers and sharp claws delicately rendered, the sharp beak opening to form the aperture of the vessel, with finial in the form of a bird, its beak forming the spout fastened on hinge allowing opening movements, the feathery avian creature grasping two serpents in its claws and body covered in further elaborate archaistic scrolls.

Note: Gourd-shaped vessels resembling the current lot have been unearthed in Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi province, which were among the territories ruled by Jin and Wei. Although such vessels are used for serving wine, the design is rare amongst other more widely found vessel forms. Excavations in early Warring States tombs have only revealed one such vessel within a large burial, suggesting that such vessels reflected noble status.

For a similar example excavated in 1988 at Jinshen village, Taiyuan, Shanxi province, in the Shanxi Museum, see Zhongguo meishu fenlei quanji. Zhongguo qingtong tongqi quanji 8. Dongzhou 2, Beijing, 1995, pp.73-74, no.81-83. See also other similar excavated examples in the Shaanxi Museum of History and Sackler Gallery of Art, Zhongguo meishu fenlei quanji. Zhongguo qingtong tongqi quanji 8. Dongzhou 2, Beijing, 1995, pp.75-76, no.84-85.

For an example of this rare type in the Arthur Sackler collection, see Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Washington, 1995, pp.236-239, no.39. The author suggests that this type of vessel was a 'short-lived type which appeared toward the end of the eighth century BC and disappeared by the early fifth century BC, and illustrates a closely related example formerly in the collection of Mrs. Otto H. Kahn, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1949.135.9), illustrated by Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, Washington, 1995, pg.238, fig.39.1.