Rare Extremité de hampe à deux faces en bronze Fin de la Dynastie Shang - Début de la Dynastie des Zhou Occidentaux, ca. XIE-XE siècle avant J.-C.

le tube assez court en forme de D, sculpté sur une face d'un visage humain grimaçant aux yeux figurés par deux mamelons, surmonté d'un grand masque de taotie aux yeux exorbités et aux narines dilatées, couronné de cornes recourbées en forme de C et d'oreilles largement déployées formant des enroulements, le revers sculpté là encore de deux masques, un animal fabuleux au museau pointu et aux yeux en amande sous des sourcils épais se continuant en cornes puissantes, surmontant un masque d'éléphant stylisé à la trompe levée émergeant au centre et formant comme une queue quand l'objet est de profil, patine couleur gris-vert, D.W 37/103

Discovered at Luoyang (according to René Grousset).
Collection of Léon Wannieck, Paris (according to René Grousset).

L'Evolution des Bronzes Chinois Archaïques, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, Mai - Juin 1937, no. 32.

René Grousset, L'Evolution des Bronzes Chinois Archaïques d'après l'Exposition du Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 1937, cat. no. pl. XI.32.
René Grousset, La Chine et son Art, Paris, 1951.
Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt and Jean-Claude Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art. Bronzes, Jade, Sculpture, Ceramics, Oxford, 1980, cat. no. 30 and pl. 31.

The finial is heavily and solidly cast. The x-ray reveals that it is in overall very good condition with the exception of a ca. 0.5x0.5cm large hole/casting flaw to the left side of the ovine head's nose and a ca. 0.2x0.2cm large small hole/casting flaw to the left fang of the smaller taotie mask below the ovine mask on the same side. There is a tiny hole below the left nostril of the large taotie mask above the human face. There are minor areas of loss to the bronze along the rim. There are traces of encrustation in the recessed areas and the inside of the finial. There is overall light malachite encrustation to the surface. The bronze has patinated to a rich dark brown tone with malachite green areas that are more vividly dark green than the catalogue illustration suggests. The inventory number D.W 37/103 is inscribed in white inside the foot.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This unusual bronze finial is one of several examples known to exist in Western collections formed at the same time as the David-Weill Collection in the 1930s. Only five other finials of the same size and design are recorded, the first from the Pillsbury Collection, is illustrated in Alain Priest, Chinese Bronzes of the Shang (1766-1122 B.C.) through the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-906), New York, 1938, cat. no. 124, the second, in the collection of the British Museum, London, published in William Watson, Handbook to the Collections of Early Chinese Antiquities, London, 1963, pl. 12; two other examples from the Avery Brundage Collection, are shown in Rene-Yvon Levebvre d'Argence, Bronze Vessels of Ancient China in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1977, pl. XXIV.B and C. A fifth example is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian, Beijing, 1988, vol. 1, pl. 99. A related bronze staff finial cast with a slightly different human face below the large animal mask, was sold at Sotheby's London, 6th April 1976, lot, 12, and is now in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, published in Giuseppe Eskenazi, A Dealer's Hand. The Chinese Art World through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, p. 178, pl. 7. 

The rarity of this bronze finial, and the five companion pieces, lies in their elaborately conceived design. Cast like a sculpture in the round, each finial features four different heads, one side dominated by a large animal mask with prominent eyes and large coiled horns surmounting a realistically depicted human face with a wide crescent-shaped mouth, the reverse side of the finial cast with an elephant head with a projecting coiled trunk below a large head of what appears to be a feline or rodent. Viewed from the sides, the finial shows all four heads in full profile. Holes on the lower part of the base indicate that these finials may have served as a finial for a wooden stave or pole. 

The most striking feature of this bronze finial is the representation of a realistically rendered grimacing human face with a prominent nose, eyes and a wide, crescent-shaped mouth with small openwork-teeth. Human faces are rarely depicted on Shang or Western Zhou ritual bronzes, yet several important examples are known. A bronze you in the collection of the Musee Cernuschi, Paris, is cast in the form of a feline devouring a human figure; a fang ding cast with four large human faces reputedly found at Ningxiang county, Hunan, see Jessica Rawson, Mysteries of Ancient China, London, 1996, p. 51, fig. 51. Rawson attributes the origins of human faces on ritual bronzes to a Southern Chinese tradition, backed by recently excavated large bronze figures with human faces found in Sanxingdui, Guanghan county, Sichuan. Yet, human faces do appear on chariot and harness fittings of the Shang and Western Zhou periods, compare Rawson, ibid., pp. 114-116.

Such detail as found on the present finial is unusual for a comparatively small bronze fitting. Close yet less detailed examples have been discovered in tombs of the early mid-Western Zhou period at Baoji, Shaanxi province, see Baoji Yu guo mudi, Beijng, 1988, vol. 2, pl. 215. Other examples in early Western collections include two bronze finials from the gallery stock of Otto Burchard, illustrated in Ludwig Reidemeister, Die Bestaende der Firma Dr. Otto Burchard & Co., Berlin, in Liquidation. Chinesische Kunst, 1. Teil, Berlin, 1935, pl. 29.287; the second from the von der Heydt Collection, in Viktor Griessmaier, Sammlung Baron Eduard von der Heydt Wien, Wien, 1936, cat. no. 122.