Two rare bronze figural mat weights, Han dynasty | 漢 銅人形席鎮兩件

Collection of Frederick Knight. 

Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 1982. 

Sotheby's London, 21st June 1983, lot 14. 

Christie's London, 5th December 1994, lot 223. 

Frederick Knight收藏

Bluett & Sons Ltd.，倫敦，1982年

倫敦蘇富比1983年6月21日，編號14

倫敦佳士得1994年12月5日，編號223

Kandai no bijutsu [The Art of the Han Dynasty], Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1974, cat. no. 2-169. 

'Collectors Column. The Burlington House Sale', Arts of Asia, July-August 1982, p. 139.

《漢代の美術》，大阪市立美術館，大阪，1974年，編號2-169

〈Collectors Column. The Burlington House Sale〉，《亞洲藝術》，1982年7至8月，頁139

Striking for their fluid exaggerated pose, the present stylized figures represent the fully developed bronze sculptural tradition of the Han dynasty (206 BC - 221 AD). Filled with lead or clay, such figures were produced in sets of four and served to hold down mats for seating and for playing liubo. One such set of figures, excavated from tomb no. 1 at Fujiagou, Lingtai county, Gansu province and now in the Lingtai County Cultural Center, is illustrated in The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts. Sculpture of the Qin and Han Dynasties, vol. 2, Beijing, 1988, pl. 75, where the figures are described as dice players. Another complete set in the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels, is illustrated in Christian Deydier, Chinese Bronzes, New York, 1980, pl. 102; and another in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pl. 253. A fourth complete set was sold in our London rooms, 5th December 1995, lot 20. Individual weights cast in similar pose to the present example include one exhibited alongside the present lot in the exhibition Kandai no Bijutsu [Arts of the Han Dynasty], Osaka Municipal Museum, 1974, cat. no 2-170, previously sold in our London rooms, 11th July 1972, lot 281, and then sold again in the same rooms, 7th June 1988, lot 5. Further examples include one sold in these rooms, 6th April 1982, lot 23; and another sold at Christie's New York, 2nd December 1986, lot 330. 

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. 666r28.

本拍品經牛津熱釋光檢測編號666r28，結果與其斷代相符