Lot 154. An inscribed bronze spearhead, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, Bashu culture; 30 cm. Lot sold: 138,600 HKD (Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

the elongated leaf-shaped blade set on a slightly flared and hollow shaft, one side cast with a pacing tiger with a striped pelt shown in profile, the other side with an insect with patterned wings, detailed with a jar within an arc above and an arm below, the hollow shaft flanked by two long wavy loops and bordered by a classic leiwen scroll.

Provenance: Luen Chai Curios, Hong Kong, 14th July 1988.

Literature: Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 60.

Exhibited: Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990.
British Museum, London, on loan, 1992-2015.

Note: A closely related spearhead decorated with an almost identical zoomorphic design, but shorter in size, attributed to the Bashu culture of the Warring States period, is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 1994.605.98. 

Sotheby's. HOTUNG  The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 9 October 2022