An archaic bronze wine vessel and cover (He), Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period | 東周 戰國 青銅獸紋盉

The present he has a notably complex design involving sculptural bird-form legs and spout, an openwork feline-form handle, and three decorative bands each featuring different animals. A very similar he, with slight variations to the details and including a monkey-form knop on the cover, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, was exhibited and published in Mirroring China's Past: Emperors, Scholars, and their Bronzes, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2018, cat. no. 101. Another, with composite human-bird-form legs and a solid handle cast in intricate high relief imitating openwork, from the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 597. More recently, a he of the present type, but with bird-and-human legs, a solid handle, and bands of copper inlay, sold at Christie's New York, 24th September 2020, lot 1510. Related he of the period, but with slightly simpler decoration and supported on cabriole legs, include one excavated in Chengdu, Sichuan province bearing an inscription dedicated to Marquis Chun Cheng, and published in Chen Peifen, Xia Shang Zhou qingtongqi yanjiu: Dong Zhou pian, xia [Study of bronzes of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods: Eastern Zhou, vol. 2], Shanghai, 2004, pl. 628; one with inlaid copper details from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection and now in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (accession no. S1987.315a-b), published in Jenny F. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, vol. III, New York, 1995, pl. 84; one sold first in our London rooms, 17th November 1999, lot 703, and later in these rooms, 21st September 2006, lot 153; and one sold in these rooms, 31st March - 1st April 2005, lot 154A.