A pair of parcel-gilt and silvered bronze vases, hu, Western Han dynasty | 西漢　青銅局部鎏金舖首銜環壺一對

Kochukyo Co., Ltd, Tokyo. 

This vessel, also known as a "zhong," was used for storing wine and was typically produced either without any decoration or entirely gilded during the Warring States to Western Han periods. The present lot features partial gilding, which is particularly rare.

Compare a fully gilt example unearthed from the tomb of the King of Nanyue in Guangzhou, Western Han dynasty, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese bronze vessels], Beijing, 2019, vol. 19, no. 239, which shares a similar form. Compare also a gilt-bronze hu in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Gugong qingtong tudian/Illustrated Catalogue of Bronzes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2010, no. 207; and another example in the Xi'an Museum that includes a phoenix-finial lid, which was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in Sun Zhixin, Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 200), Beijing, 2020, no. 67.

來源

壺中居，東京

蓋穹頂飾三片雲狀立柱，翻轉可做承足，壺盤口，束頸溜肩，肩兩側飾鋪首銜環，腹鼓下垂收於外撇圈足，肩、胸、腹飾凸起環帶，環帶且內凹，蓋立柱一周、口沿、肩、胸、腹、圈足及鋪首啣環鎏金，金水華麗厚實。

此類壺也稱為「鐘」，為盛酒器，戰國至西漢常見素器或通體鎏金者，如此對局部鎏金之例頗罕。可參考廣州西漢越王墓出土一件通體鎏金之例，制式頗與之同，見《中國出土青銅器全集》，卷19，北京，2019年，編號239；又可比較北京故宮藏一件銅鎏金壺，見《故宮青銅圖典》，北京，2010年，編號207；西安博物院藏一例亦資參考，帶蓋，蓋上立鳳鳥，借展於美國大都會博物館，著錄於孫志新編，《秦漢文明—歷史、藝術與物質文化》，北京，2020年，編號67。