In 1991 Sydney L. Moss Ltd. published “The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork”, an exhibition catalogue whose time we felt had come. We had managed to gather together a coherent group for a focused show, including its fair share of star works. It was quite a successful foray.

At that time we had recently experienced London dealer Michael Goedhuis’ 1989 show of Chinese and Japanese bronzes, and Rose Kerr’s 1990 book for the Victoria & Albert Museum, “Later Chinese Bronzes”. Discussions about metalwork hung heavy in the air. Prior to that activity, though, we had concentrated quite some attention on the material in our first exhibit of literati arts, 1983’s “In Scholars’ Taste”, with its essay by Ulrich Hausmann, “In Search of Later Bronzes”, and our 1986 “The Literati Mode”, with another fine Hausmann essay, the first and I think only discussion of Chinese copper-bronze handwarmers in English: “Keeping Warm in a Cold Study: The Warmer”. I recommend both essays, which have so far stood the test of time. All our Chinese art catalogues not restricted to painting and calligraphy - over the last 38 years - include later bronzes which we found original and individual, characteristics we have always prized over the classic.

It was our long-term association with Ulrich Hausmann that sharpened our intuitive attraction to what was evidently a wildly underrated area of literati works of art. His was and still is by far the most sophisticated approach to such material that we had come across, and I for one was extremely impressed by his insistence that the best later bronzes, as opposed to the merely decorative, were to be considered an organic literati material, with a “skin”. For many years we stored in a cupboard in our (then) Brook Street W1 gallery two entire collections of the “Song to Ming” type flower vessels – Ulrich’s and another – thinking with the encouragement of the owners to produce a reference work on them. To my regret, we never did; the values involved were not sufficient to cover the publication of a worthwhile book. But we learned a lot, meantime.

That same year, 1991, saw the emergence onto the international scene of a remarkable collector, Bob Kresko, of St. Louis (and Florida, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where my entire family went to visit the Kreskos one summer, my three sons convincingly dressed as cowboys). I learned only a little while ago that Bob passed away late last year, and I remain extremely sorry to hear it. He was an unusually uplifting and entertaining man, who supplied me with all my best jokes, and once he had a project he wasted no time or effort in putting it into practice. He instructed me to proactively go and buy for him all of the best later bronzes I could find; it was a liberation, like being unleashed. I have never enjoyed a plan coming together quite as much. Bob’s important criterion, apart from finesse and originality, was that his bronzes should be big and bold, or at least sprawl a little, and for that reason he passed up the opportunity to add a few exquisite gems of smaller stature. With that one proviso, he consistently bought everything special he was offered for over a decade, into the very early 2000s. It was a time when the New York auction market was giving up on classic old Chinese paintings, and that of the Chinese mainland had not yet started in earnest. I was delighted and relieved to have an area of endeavour with some prospect of unheard-of quality in which, if I didn’t know where every last masterpiece resided, at least I had a good idea of a few noteworthy doors to knock on. Again, I learned a great deal.

In 2008 the St. Louis Art Museum – which has long owned a stunning group of archaic Chinese bronzes – published Philip K. Hu’s “Later Chinese Bronzes - The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert Kresko Collections”. It is an excellent book, with the proviso that, given Bob Kresko’s insistence on scale, they really needed to print it much bigger. If you read the book and then visit the collection you will be taken aback by the size and power of many of the star contenders. Other than that, the content is genuinely superior. To me, the material is of a different order altogether when compared with, for example, the 1993 Phoenix Art Museum publication on the Clague collection of later bronzes.

With Robert Kresko’s focus on cornering the market in fine, outsize later bronzes, especially vessels, we at Sydney L. Moss Ltd. decided in the early 1990s that we should discreetly put away all of our remaining “The Second Bronze Age” works against the happy day when they would all turn out to be rare, valuable and all the more historically significant for having been included in our early presentation of such things. To this end, we also bought back a modest handful of those we had sold from our exhibition. When Mr. Kresko stopped buying in the early 2000s, which took place upon the results of the mainland auction of Wang Shixiang’s collection being relayed to the Western world, we took it upon ourselves to determinedly acquire anything further we could find that qualified as extra-special. That is how the present selection came to be. We would (and probably will) persist with the ongoing slow growth of the group, because it’s more fun than any alternative; but I turn 70 in April, and my so-called semi-retirement becomes more of a reality, and while none of us is done yet, it feels like an appropriate time to clear the decks. Son and boss Oliver Moss is profoundly enthused by these works, but it is far from clear that current world availability will permit him to indulge as I did.

Not all of the Kresko later bronzes ended up in the St. Louis Art Museum; Sotheby’s Hong Kong offered several of them in 2016, just as it offered the pick of the Ulrich Hausmann collection in 2014. To us, those auctions represented the high point of serious availability of truly special later Chinese bronzes, and we envisage the current Sydney L. Moss Ltd. selection as not only a celebration of the impact of our 1991 “The Second Bronze Age” exhibition but also a logical extension of that focused intent. Please enjoy.

 Paul Moss.

Lot 3667. A rare miniature gold and silver-inlaid bronze vessel, gu, Song–Ming dynasty (960-1644); 5.6 cm. Estimate: 30,000 - 50,000 HKD. Lot sold: 63,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

of archaistic form, inlaid in gold and silver around the exterior with upright plantain lappets and scrollwork, the base with a four-character inscription.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd.

Provenance: Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1990.

Literature: The Second Bronze Age. Later Chinese Metalwork, Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, 1991, cat. no. 37.

Lot 3669. A bronze 'dragon' incense burner, Ming dynasty, Xuande mark; 18.5 cm. Estimate: 150,000 - 250,000 HKD. Lot sold: 239,400 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

raised on a splayed foot, the waisted neck flanked by a pair of mythical beast mask handles comprising a lion's mane and an elephant's trunk, the exterior further cast in relief with two ferocious three-clawed dragons soaring amidst ruyi clouds, the base with a six-character Xuande mark within a recessed panel.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd.

Literature: The Second Bronze Age. Later Chinese Metalwork, Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, 1991, cat. no. 44.

Property from the collection of Robert E. Kresko. A arge and powerfully cast bronze 'dragon' incense burner, late Ming – early Qing dynasty; 30.5 cm, 12 in. Sold for 2,480,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6th April 2016, lot 3664. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Lot 3671. A parcel-gilt bronze figure of Shoulao, Ming dynasty, 16th century; 27.9 cm. Estimate: 100,000 - 150,000 HKD. Lot sold: 189,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

cast standing before a tortoise on a short plinth supported on four ruyi feet, the deity depicted with a characteristic elongated forehead and a meditative expression, further portrayed dressed in long flowing robes.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd. 

Lot 3678. A bronze 'dragon' incense burner, Ming dynasty, Xuande mark; h. 9.3 cm. Estimate: 450,000 - 550,000 HKD. Lot sold: 567,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

with slightly bombé sides raised on three ruyi feet, the exterior with three recessed medallions, each cast with an Arabic inscription against a punched ground, the base centred with a medallion enclosing a seal mark reading Feiyunge ('Pavilion of the Flying Clouds'), the exterior decorated overall save for the mark with gold splashes.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd. 

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th May 2014, lot 742.

Lot 3679. A bronze openwork spherical incense burner, Late Ming – Early Qing dynasty; 17 cm. Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 HKD. Lot sold: 52,920 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

delicately cast with a spherical body divided into eight quadrants, each enclosing a pair of Buddhist lions and a beribboned brocade ball against a pierced diaper ground, the bronze patinated to a warm caramel-brown tone.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd. 

Note: This rare openwork incense burner, known as a xunqiu, appears in Tang silver, possibly derived from Sassanian prototypes. The skilful technique on the current incense burner appears to relate to the high quality craftsmanship on late Ming handwarmers, notably those created by Zhang Mingqi and Wang Fengjiang, both from Jiaxing, Zhejiang.

Lot 3688. A rare gold-splashed bronze 'dragon and phoenix' double-vase, Mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 14.9 cm. Estimate: 400,000 - 500,000 HKD. Lot sold: 567,000HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the two ovoid vases of upright elongated form, the exterior elaborately decorated with mythical beast masks issuing mock rings and surrounded by a stylised dragon and phoenix beasts meandering around the vessels with angular scroll bodies, further applied with splashes of gold, the base of the taller vase with a four-character reign mark within a rectangular.

From the Collection of Sydney L. Moss Ltd.  

Note: Another gold-splashed bronze double vase of this form from the Qing court collection, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 2003, p. 157, fig. III-22. See also an example from the W.W. Winkworth collection, illustrated in The Minor Arts of China, III, Spink and Son Ltd, London, 1987, cat. no. 97, and an example illustrated by Robert H. Mowry, China's Renaissance in Bronze. The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, Phoenix, AZ, 1994, pp. 190-191. See also a closely related example of the same size acquired from Sydney Moss Ltd., London by Robert E. Kresko, illustrated by Philip K. Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes - The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert Kresko Collections, St. Louis, 2008, cat. no. 36, and sold in these rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 3676.

Compare also two other Qianlong reign-marked gold-splashed double-vases from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection sold in these rooms, one in the form of an arrow and guan vase, 8th October 2009, lot 1801 and another in the form of persimmons, 8th October 2010, lot 2189.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 17 march 2021