Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A RARE CHINESE SILVER-INLAID BRONZE BIRD-SHAPED FINIAL, DINGSHI
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY/WARRING STATE

Hollow cast as a recumbent bird with its head turned backwards, gracefully holding a sphere on its back, the facial features, plumage, long tail and feet detailed in silver and silver wire inlay, the surface with greyish-green encrustation, together with a wood stand, 11.5cm. (2)

Provenance: from the collection of Major Henry F Stanley MC (1911-97). Major Stanley, formerly of the Grenadier Guards, was recruited from the Royal Automobile Club in London in 1957 to head and form the Hong Kong Tourist Association, retiring from his role as executive director in 1971. He was widely known as the 'Father of Hong Kong Tourism'.

Cf. Christie's New York, 16th March 2017, lot 871, and Bonhams New York, 16th March 2015, lot 2001, for two related bird-form bronze finials of this type.

Finials of this type, with a hollow interior, may have been used to top the shafts of bronze ge. Mythical birds were a popular decorative motif in the Zhou dynasty. In Eastern Zhou examples, avian motifs adopted greater realism and the present lot exemplifies this aesthetic evolution with stylized geometric inlay in the plumage and the naturalistic pose.

東周或戰國時代 銅錯銀鳥形頂鈕
來源：Henry F Stanley少校 (1911-97) 的收藏。