An archaistic gold and silver-inlaid bronze vessel (Bianhu), Song / Ming dynasty | 宋 / 明 銅仿古錯金銀扁壺

Collection of Elis Reinius (1872-1948).

Swedish Private Collection.

Elis Reinius (1872-1948) 收藏

瑞典私人收藏

From the Song dynasty onwards, there was increased interest in antiquity, with vessels such as the current example part of a tradition of antiquarianism and reproduction of archaic bronze ritual vessels from earlier dynasties. Ancient objects were eagerly collected and studied by collectors as well as the imperial court. A large body of texts and catalogues devoted to documenting and interpreting artifacts from the past were produced and disseminated, and the quest for antiquity generated a wide range of cultural production during the later part of the Song dynasty.

This flattened oval-shaped wine flask is based on an archaic bronze prototype, usually created with a perishable organic cover, representing the influence of the nomadic pastoralists during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC on bronze designs of the Warring States period. These nomadic people, who traveled with all their possessions by horse and cart, carried drinking flasks made from wood or leather which were often suspended by cords. The bronze interpretation of this drinking flask was an innovation of the Warring States period, whereby the suspension cords were transformed into strips of bronze inlaid with copper.

For the prototype, see an example excavated at Shangcunling, Sanmenxia, Henan province in 1975 and now in the Henan Provincial Museum, Zhengzhou, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Bronzes], vol. 8, Beijing, 1995, pl. 143 and on the slipcase. See also other examples of prototypes in important museum collections include one from the Buckingham Collection, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (accession no. 1937.1), illustrated in Charles Fabens Kelley and Ch'en Ming-Chai, Chinese Bronzes from the Buckingham Collection, Chicago, 1946, pl. LVII; another in the Kunstindustrimuseum, Copenhagen, illustrated in the catalogue Ritual Vessels of Bronze Age China, Asia Society, New York, 1968, cat. no. 65; and a third in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (accession no. M.75.111.3), illustrated in George Kuwayama, Ancient Ritual Bronzes of China, Los Angeles, 1976, cat. no. 46. Another example, formerly with J.T. Tai & Co., was first sold in our London rooms, 25th March 1975, lot 159, and again in these rooms, 22nd March 2011, lot 202.