A RARE CHINESE BRONZE OPENWORK BRAZIER

Han Dynasty

漢 青銅四神紋爐

The upper section with openwork sides cast with the animals of the Four Directions below four tab supports rising from the rim, surmounting a tapered lower section supported by four feet styled as crouching human figures, with an openwork grate at the base, the brazier set with a flattened handle that curves up to a leaf-shaped terminal,

24.1cm long, approx. 700g

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PROVENANCE:

Private Collection, London;

Christie's London, 5th - 6th July, 1983, lot 108;

The Michael Michaels Collection of Early Chinese Art;

Christie’s London, 7th November 2017, lot 170;

UK Private Collection

來源：

倫敦私人收藏;

倫敦佳士得，1983年7月5至6日，拍品編號108;

英國藏家邁克爾·麥克（Michael Michaels）(1907-1986) 舊藏;

倫敦佳士得，2017年11月7日，拍品編號170;

英國私人收藏

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c.f. Similar braziers are illustrated in 'Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection', Tokyo, 1961, pl. 209; and in 'Chinese Bronzes from the Buckingham Collection', The Art Institute of Chicago, 1946, pls. LXV, LXVI and LXVII. These examples retain the ear cup that would have rested on the supports at the rim, and also the tray on which the brazier would have stood. A brazier of this type was sold at Christie's New York, 13th - 14th September 2012, lot 1252.

A comparable brazier was sold at Sotheby's New York, 19th March 2013, lot 70, having previously been offered at Sotheby's London in 11th December 1979, lot 49, and illustrated by Jessica Rawson in 'The Bella and P.P. Chiu Collection of Ancient Chinese Bronzes', Hong Kong, 1988, no. 39.

Related braziers dated to the Han Dynasty are in several museum collections, including the British Museum, illustrated by Watson in 'The British Museum Handbook to the Collections of Early Chinese Antiquities', London, 1962, p. 53, fig. 14c; and the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in 'Shanghai Bowuguan Cang Qintong Qi', p.1.98.

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