Sze Yuan Tang Collection.

Bonhams Hong Kong, 24th November 2013, lot 465.

European Private Collection.

Superbly cast and sumptuously decorated in gold and silver inlay, the present pair of corner fittings encapsulates not only the technological virtuosity of the bronze workshops in ancient China but also the peak of luxury design in the Warring States period. The L-shaped fitting depicts a pair of dynamic mythical beasts that is ingeniously joined at the muzzle, creating the illusion🌺 of a single animal when viewed from the pointed center. Each beast is portrayed pow🦂erfully striding forward, accentuated by the extensive use of curves in the fluid outlines of the muscular body – skillfully echoed in the tail, wings, and horn, as well as the delicate inlays – in a way that juxtaposes with the narrow band at the top.

Like most bronze animal-form sculptures from this period, the current corner fittings had a practical function and were most likely made as a set of four to serve as a corner support for a low table, vessel or tray for an elite or royal patron. See an elaborate Warring States period bronze lamp supported by three related L-shaped fittings, each modeled in the form of a bifurcated mythical beast, excavated from the tomb of King Cuo of Zhongshan at Pingshan county, Hebei province, exhibited in Zhongshan fengyun. Guzhongshanguo wenwu yishu / The Cultural Relics and Art of the Ancient Zhongshan Kingdom, Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan, 2015, cat. no. 122. The placement of mythical beasts at the corners welcomes various angles of viewing and can be found from as early as the Shang dynasty; see two bronze vessels illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji [Complete coll🗹ection of Chinese bronzes], vol. 13, Beijing, 1994, 🌄pl. 87, and vol. 1, Beijing, 1996, pl. 117.

Very few related corner fittings of this type have been preserved. Compare a silver-inlaid example formerly in the Stoclet Collection, later entering the collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2022, lot 20; another gilt-bronze fitting without inlay, in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, Kobe, published in Hakutsuru eiga: hakutsuru bijutsukan meihin zuroku [Selected masterpiece of Hakutsuru Museum], Kobe, 1978, pl. 33; and a third from the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Osaka, 1989, cat. no. 262. 

See also four similar silver-inlaid examples, which would have originally formed a set in the Warring States period. Two formerly in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III and now in the collection of Pierre Uldry, are illustrated in Chinesisches Gold und Silber – die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1994, cat. no. 23; the third sold at Christie's New York, 17th March 2017, lot 1009; and the last in the collection of Dr. Paul Singer is illustrated in Max Loehr, Relics of Ancient China from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer, Asia Society, New York, 1965, cat. no. 71.

The style of the powerful animal depicted on the present fittings resembles the famous pair of Warring States bronze winged mythical beasts unearthed from the royal tombs of the Zhongshan state, Pingshan county, Hebei province, included in the exhibition Treasures from the Tombs of Zhong Shan Guo Kings: An Exhibition from the People's Republic of China, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, cat. no. 43. See also a gilt-bronze terminal ornament made in the form of a beast head with similar features, in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C., exhibited in Chinese Art of the Warring States Period. Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Freer Gallery of Art (now the Nationa༒l Museum of Asian Art), Washington, D♏.C., 1982, pl. 25.