*
Fing Arts
NK
7983
M12
A4
To Aryamin March Eag..
with my complimesto
Baeshi bhart.
Mia, Ch'ang-elet
THE MA CHANG KEE COLLECTION
ANCIENT CHINESE BRONZES
+
Exhibited at the Galleries of
RALPH M. CHAIT
600 Madison Avenue
New York
+4
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES
:
+
Ping Arts
!
!
!
VI
사단​법인 ​국민
​
Send to Fine Cento
Sen Libr
Bery, March Exllection
7-15-49
"He who has money is fortunate; but he
who has ancient bronzes is blessed by
Heaven."-MA CHANG KEE.
Kee.
Fing Arts
NK
7983
MIZ.
A A
FOREWORD
TSING
"SING FAH MA, the celebrated collector and connoisseur, is a Chinese
gentleman of advanced years. For generations, his family has dealt in
Chinese works of art of the highest importance. As intermediaries or agents
representing the members and nobles of the courts of the Chinese Empire of
the now defunct Ch'ing dynasty, which had ruled China for two hundred and
sixty-eight years, many of the most cherished treasures, even those considered
as the palladia of the empire, have been negotiated or acquired through them.
In China, Mr. Ma, or Ma Chang Kee as he is also known there, is called the
"source" from whom great works of art and information concerning them can
be acquired. No matter how serious their need for cash may be in these trying
times, the princes, nobles, and fastidious members of the aristocracy, whose
names are famous throughout China as collectors and connoisseurs, will not
permit strangers or dealers to pass the gateways of their homes, but deal with
and show their possessions to Mr. Ma. He is financially independent, and is
considered one of China's foremost experts, especially in ancient bronzes, being
the scion of a family preeminent in that field.
Mr. Ma belongs to the old school. It has been his custom to conduct his
affairs from his home and gardens in Shanghai, where most of the important
art deals are consummated only after weeks of discussions, tea-drinkings, and
exchanges of salutations, as Chinese etiquette prescribes.
Two years ago, he was enabled to gratify an old desire to visit the
Occident, to see again in his lifetime the many chefs d'oeuvres which he and
his father before him had been so instrumental in procuring and collecting,
and which since had left the shores of China. At that time, he had acquired
an assemblage of rare bronzes which he considered the crowning glory
of his career.
And so, on this, his first trip to America, he brought with him a few
pieces from this rare group, which contained objects gathered from the imperial
and most noted private Chinese collections, the like of which no Occidental
had ever before seen. Upon his arrival here, he stated in his limited English
that his reason for personally bringing these objects, rather than having
entrusted them to agents as was his practice in the past, was his desire to
learn at first hand, from his visit, whether the Americans "eyes have got,"
meaning,-appreciation, taste and knowledge.
In the unique collection which he had acquired, there were a group of
gold bronze vessels, surpassing in quality and technique those known to
Occidental experts, from which, in 1930, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
purchased one bronze jar. In describing it", the curator of Asiatic art,
Mr. Kojiro Tomita, states: "So exceptional in technique and quality is this
bronze jar of the Han dynasty, that its acquisition is a great event."
About a year later, when Mr. Ma arrived here, he brought three other
specimens of gold bronze which he had decided to part with. These consisted
* See "Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts", No. 167, Volume 28, June, 1930.
of a similar gold bronze jar, differing from the one in the Boston Museum only
in the handles; a covered ceremonial gold bronze vessel, and a gold bronze
bowl, which the celebrated collector, Miss Kate S. Buckingham of Chicago,
was fortunate in purchasing, and all of which are now proudly exhibited at
the Art Institute of Chicago.
Regarding the jar, Mr. Charles Fabens Kelley, curator of Oriental art at
the Art Institute, says that the **"Magnificent jar of ceremonial type,
decorated with engraved patterns in silver on a groundwork of gold. . . is an
almost exact duplicate of the one recently acquired by the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts and described in a scholarly article by Kojiro Tomita."
Mr. Ma, having learned that we "eyes have got" went back to China,
and returned to America, bringing with him the most important objects in
the collection, because of the belligerent threats made by Japan to China,
and the general chaotic state of affairs there. This group comprises the
remaining and the most outstanding gold bronzes in the collection, among
which is the third of the series of the only three gold bronze jars known,
differing slightly in shape from the one in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and
the one in the Art Institute of Chicago; also, the large gold bronze plate,—an
extraordinary and unique specimen, distinguished by its beauty of design,
perfect technique, and its size; as well as four other amazingly beautiful and
rare gold bronze ceremonial vessels; and some finely patinated, rare sacrificial
vessels differing from and surpassing those known to be in our most noted
collections.
Mr. Ma, however, could not continue his stay in America because the
Sino-Japanese war broke out, and it became imperative for him to return to
China to attend to the care of his family and interests.
Therefore, it falls to my good fortune to present for exhibition, these,
the rarest of ancient Chinese gold and sacrificial bronzes, used in the ritual
ceremonies of Heaven and Ancestor-worship by the feudal lords of
ancient China.
The bronzes exhibited have been authoritatively described, authenticated,
and catalogued by the eminent scholar, Dr. Berthold Laufer, of the Field
Museum of Chicago, who also made the epigraphical determinations and trans-
lations of the pictographic and ideographic inscriptions appearing on the vessels.
The collection has also been inspected and examined by Dr. Colin G. Fink,
Professor of Electro-Chemistry, Columbia University, and Consultant to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, who also rendered a report of his findings from
his microscopic and other scientific analysis of one of the gold bronzes.
To both these gentlemen, I extend my grateful thanks for their assistance
and scholarly contributions, and regret that the limited space of this booklet
does not permit the printing of their full, minutely detailed descriptions
and findings.
RALPH M. CHAIT.
December, 1932.
** See "Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago", No. 1 and 2, Volume 26, January and
February, 1932.
CHRONOLOGY
Hsia Dynasty..
Shang or Yin Dynasty........
Chou Dynasty..........
Ch'in or Ts'in Dynasty.
…………….
***** | * «
YOU
........2205-1766 B.C.
N
1766-1122 B.C.
1122-255 B.C.
246-207 B.C.
INTRODUCTORY
MAN
ANY excellent bronzes have come out of China during the last two
decades and may be seen in our museums and private collections, but
the earliest and best are still retained in the hands of collectors in China.
Owing to a lucky chance we are now offered an opportunity to view in
Mr. Chait's Galleries a series of monumental bronzes that have come from the
mansions of various prominent Chinese collectors.
The importance of this gathering of bronzes rests on the fact that it
allows us to study the fundamental characteristics of Shang, Chou, and Ts'in
(or Ch'in) bronzes. It is not so long ago that students of Chinese art were
hesitant to admit the existence of Shang bronzes, and there were even those
who denied the existence of Chou bronzes. These apprehensions, however,
were elicited by lack of experience and proper knowledge of the subject.
There is no longer any ground for this safety-first-attitude which relegates
a Shang bronze to the Chou period, and a Chou and Ts'in bronze to the Han
epoch or even later. Any authentic archaic bronze can now with perfect
safety be assigned to its proper setting, for the characteristic features of the
bronzes of each period are perfectly well-known.
During the last decade sound and systematic excavations undertaken by
Chinese scholars have made us familiar with the culture of the Shang that
represents a world in itself, fundamentally different from that of the suc-
ceeding Chou dynasty. The results of this painstaking work have been
published in Chinese, and this accounts for the fact that the majority of
museum curators has not taken notice of it, or has not been able to follow the
progress of science made in China. It is now possible to outline a clear picture
of what Shang civilization was; we know its antiquities, its peculiar script
and the contents of its inscriptions,-all radically at variance with what
constitutes the later Chou culture.
In Mr. Chait's exhibit there are three prominent objects which
indubitably are offsprings of Shang civilization, Nos. 1, 6 and 12. No. 1, a
twin owl wine kettle (type yu) is provided with an inscription cast both in
the bottom and inside of the cover. This inscription consists of four
characters of primitive pictographic style (note the bird caught in a net in
the character Lo) such as was never used under the Chou or any subsequent
period. This inscription reads: Lo tso fu Kwei, which means: "Lo had this
vessel made in memory of his father Kwei." Kwei is one of the twelve cyclical
signs used in the reckoning of years. These signs were employed as personal
names under the Shang dynasty, and under this dynasty only, and are
thoroughly characteristic of it. They were not utilized as personal names
under any subsequent dynasty. The above inscription in its form and content
could only have been indited by a man of Shang.
Again, in the bronze No. 6, a beaker of the type tsun, we find an inscrip-
tion cast inside of the hollow foot and consisting of three characters, which
read: Kia shi tso. This means: "The historiographer (shi) had this vessel
S
made (tso) in memory of his father Kia." The word Kia is again one of the
twelve cyclical signs in vogue under the Shang as a personal name.
The complex cosmology personified in the large animalized wine-vessel
(No. 12) is the outcome of Shang, not Chou mythology. On the other
hand, the mythological scenes and creatures so profusely represented on the
pair of gilded tazzas (tou), on the globular vase (hu) and on the marvelous
plate (p'an) are emanations of the fantastic mythology evolved in the period
of the Ts'in (or Ch'in) (246-207 B.C.), and the designs on the gilded wine
jar (lei) are characteristic of the same epoch.
The evaluation of Chinese bronzes requires an intimate knowledge of
history, palaeography, and mythology. The stylistic criteria usually relied
upon by art students are deceptive because they are purely subjective,—a fact
to which Dr. W. Percival Yetts has recently again called attention (in an
article entitled "Problems of Chinese Bronzes" in Journal of the Royal Central
Asian Society, August, 1931).
It is wholly unnecessary to say a word of praise on behalf of the bronzes
displayed in Mr. Chait's Galleries. They plead their own cause, they justify
themselves, they stand, like the pyramids of Egypt, as great monuments for
all times.
6
BERTHOLD Laufer.
HISTORICAL OUTLINE
'HE salient bulwarks of the antiquity of nations, are witnessed in the
majority of instances, by their architectural ruins. The pyramids of Gizeh
and the temple ruins of Luxor and Karnac testify to the antiquity of the
ancient civilization of Egypt, but when we approach China we find no archi-
tectural ruins of such antiquity, for the Great Wall of China is but an
infant in comparison.
Instead, we meet with their ancient bronze sacrificial vessels which are
the most valuable legacy of China's ancient civilization, dating back to the
2nd millenium B.C., representing a monument of national art the beginning
of which is buried in the profoundest mystery and obscurity. This is also
true of the race; where the Chinese originally came from and how they
reached China are matters simply of speculation.
Bronze has been known in China since prehistoric times under the name
of "tung" and the Chinese valued it more than any other media because of its
durability and its admixture of metals which enabled it to withstand the
vicissitudes of time and the ravages of the elements so that under ordinary
conditions it suffered no noteworthy damage. Having this high regard for
the metal, they fashioned from it their vessels for the ritual of their ceremonies,
and ornamented them with designs and motives which, by their symbolism,
tend to express an animistic and cosmic idea, or a quasi-religion, between man
and the unseen powers supposed to influence his life. This form of ornamenta-
tion is quite characteristic of these early sacrificial bronzes. In many cases
they also bear hieroglyphic inscriptions which now distinguish and help in
determining their antiquity.
From such existing evidence as we have in the form of vessels and bells,
we observe that the art apparently starts mature and there are cycles of decline,
rebirth, and finally decadence. The starting point seems to be lost in legend,
yet reason and logic tell us that no matter how distant there must have been
a beginning. Whenever we may assume Chinese civilization to have begun,
no one today, in the light of our advanced knowledge, meager as it may be,
will deny a greater antiquity to the Chinese than any other living civilization,
or a continuity which despite foreign influence, is reflected in its artistic forms
of expression.
To attempt to research Chinese bronzes historically, is to discover with
much dismay that the sources of information are scant, despite the fact that'
the study of ancient bronzes has been industriously pursued in China by
generations and generations of scholars, and despite the many references to
the bronze ritual vessels in canonical books and annals, some of which like the
"Chou Li" date back to the 3rd century B.C. Of this work, the late
Prof. Hirth said that "as an educator of the nation, the 'Chou Li' has
probably not its like among the literatures of the world, not excepting the
Bible." This remark refers especially to its minute details of public and
social life because it throws considerable light on the constitution and culture
7
of the nation during the Chou dynasty. Nevertheless, so far as their bronzes
are concerned, their origin still lies hidden behind a nebulous veil of legend,
and we are unable to ascribe them to an earlier epoch than the Shang dynasty
(1766-1122 B.C.).
No example is known at this time, to exist of a period antedating this
era, though in the "Shu Ching" we read of the Nine Tripod Cauldrons (ting)
as having been cast of bronze in the Hsia dynasty (2205-1766 B.C.). These
tripods are said to have been decorated with carved designs of maps and figures,
illustrating the productions of the Nine Provinces forming the Empire, and
were long preserved as the palladia of the kingdom. These, we are further
told, were lost in the internal troubles which ushered in the close of the
Chou dynasty, (1122-255 B.C.).
The difficulties of establishing an antiquity for the bronze sacrificial
vessels at an earlier era, are due to the fact that criteria vital to a fuller
definite knowledge have as yet not become entirely available. We have
learned much as a result of the momentous discovery made in 1899, in the
environs of An-yang in the west of Honan, of several thousand fragments of
bone and tortoise-shell incised with archaic script, said to be the remains
of archives left by a royal diviner of the Shang-Yin dynasty, which
Dr. W. Percival Yetts¹ considers as "incontestable genuine additions to the
stock of pre-Ch'in documents." However, this knowledge by reason of the
fact that it is chiefly in Chinese, has escaped the notice of many and awaits.
translation by Western scholars.
4
For this knowledge, we are indebted to the labors of such eminent native
scholars, to mention but a few, as, Sun I-jang² and to Liu 0,3 who in 1903
published a huge work illustrating a thousand of these fragmentary speci-
mens; and especially to Lo Chen Yu, the famous archaeologist, who in 1914
visited the site and recorded his findings, as well as to Wang Kuo-wei's
important contributions, from which much has been added to enrich our
knowledge, not so much about bronzes alone, but as Dr. Berthold Laufer says,
"It is now possible to outline a clear picture of what Shang civilization was;
we know its antiquities, its peculiar script, and the contents of its inscriptions."
We however still await the final results of the research work in progress
by Chinese, Japanese, and Western epigraphists and archaeologists concerning
the bone finds. These however, already have well established substantial
testimony of an early Chinese civilization and culture of which the ancient
bronzes in the possession of museum and private collections throughout the
world, are living witnesses.
The early bronzes of China, beside serving as the palladia of the kingdom,
1 Catalogue of the George Eumorfopoulos Collection of Chinese and Corean Bronzes,
Volume I. W. Percival Yetts, 1929.
2 Ch'i wên chü li. A pioneer study of inscriptions on the Honan finds, 1927, with a
preface dated 1904.
3 T'ieh-yün tsang Kuei. Reproductions of ink-squeezes of inscriptions on bone fragments
from the Honan finds, 1903.
4 Yin sü ku ch'i wu t'u lû. Illustrations of the notes on ancient objects obtained by the
author's brother at the site of the Honan finds, 1916.
Yin-shang chên pu wên tzu K'ao. An initial study of divinatory inscriptions on the Honan
finds, 1910.
5 Chien shou t'ang so tsang Yin hsü wên tzu K'ao shih. Style of inscriptions on the
Honan finds.
8
were used in the ritual ceremonies of ancestor-worship, and as a consequence
are the dearest and most precious heirloom possessions of the Chinese who
value them above everything else. From time immemorial, we read that these
bronzes incited tribes to war and men to murder for their possession; caused
the looting of palaces, temples, and tombs, not only for their sacred or
artistic value, but as well for their intrinsic value when melted down and
cast into cash by forgerers. This constant recasting of bronze has been going
on for over two thousand years, at least since the beginning of the Ch'in
dynasty (246-207 B.C.), depleting the vast number of ancient bronzes
which had been cast in the preceding fifteen hundred years during the Shang
and Chou dynasties.
For the ritual of their elaborate ceremonies for ancestor and other forms
of worship, and to perform their sacrifices in a manner befitting their im-
portance, we read that a vast number of especially designed vessels were
required by the ancient Chinese. These varied in shape, size and decoration
according to the demands of the tyrannical laws of their ritual which were
always strictly adhered to. The emperor, we read, made sacrificial offerings
to Heaven as the supreme ruler. His subjects sacrificed to beings of a lower
order,—the sun, the moon, and the stars; the hills, rivers and forests, and to
the departed souls of their ancestors. The manner in which sacrifices were
made, was regulated and prescribed by myriads of petty rules; in fact, the
sacrificial service, from all we read, leads us to believe that it was the leading
feature in the spiritual life of the Chinese of the San Tai or Three Ancient
Dynasties.
No enterprise was embarked upon, or decision made without the seeking
of divine aid. Much like the ancient Greeks and their oracles, the Chinese
depended upon divination, for many references appear in their records showing
that the art of obtaining an omen from the unseen spirits was cultivated in
every minute detail. The chief means of auguration was of course, the
system of the Pa Kua or the "Eight Mystic Trigrams", though in many
cases the scales of the tortoise scorched by fire were used as oracles, as well as
numerous other means, even to the practice of observing the stars to ascertain
man's fate. If the outcome prayed for was successful, the occasion was
celebrated by the casting and presentation, with pompous ceremony, of a
bronze vessel to the ancestral shrine.
The bronze vessels used in the ritual worship of ancestors, were divided,
according to the scholars, into two classes: one for water and liquids, such
as the fragrant Chang,-an alcoholic wine fermented from millet and
mixed with odoriferous herbs. These were generally called tsun or wine
vessels. The other group was intended for solids and called yi; they were
used as sacrificial food vessels in which the offerings were made of cakes,
fruits, vegetables and viands. These groupings however, have been added to
considerably in later centuries. Chinese scholars likewise divided their
ancient bronze sacrificial vessels into two chronological categories. The
first consisted of the bronzes made during the San Tai or Three Ancient
Dynasties, namely, the Hsia, the Shang, and the Chou. The second group
included those bronzes of the Ch'in, Han and later dynasties.
9
During the Three Ancient Dynasties, China was made up of a congeries of
tribes, much like the Feudal system of Europe, differing not only in
dialect, but also in culture. All however shared equally in their fealty and
obligations as vassals to the supreme lord of the suzerainty. Fealty however,
did not deter or deprive them of the privilege of maintaining private miniature
courts wherein was observed a religious ceremonial elaborately conducted
with bronze vessels to befit its dignity. Bronzes were also cast for the
emperor and feudal lords, who presented them as trophies or gifts to trium-
phant generals and others upon whom they wished to bestow their favour.
These ritual and honorific vessels adorned with designs of monumental
grandeur gracing their plastic shapes, have intrigued the whole civilized.
world not only by their massive dignity and inimitable grand flow of lines,
but as well by the mythological creatures,-quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles,
(highly conventionalized and stylized it is true) who disport themselves on
the surfaces of the bronzes, adding further to the mystery of their origin
because of our inability through lack of records to comprehend their meaning
and purpose.
And so, the artistic temperament of the Chinese found an outlet and an
impetus in this gorgeous ceremonial which combined and utilized all forms of
beauty. Authorities universally agree that this sacerdotal art of China is
one of the highest summits of human art, and that even in those remote
epochs the Chinese were daring artists and master-craftsmen in metal. All
of which is further proof that the art, because of its maturity at this early
period, must of a necessity be at least a millenium or more older than we know
it to be.
This belief is somewhat substantiated by the startling finds of a Neolithic
pottery made by Prof. Andersson about a decade ago in Kansu at the foot
of the hills and in the caves of the valley of the Upper Yellow River. A
ware antedating even this was discovered at about the same time, in Honan
in the lower valley of the Yellow River, known as the Yang-shao site. These
pottery vessels dating back to at least the 3rd millenium B.C., indicate that
even at that time a high state of civilization and culture existed, capable of
producing vessels of earthenware, classic in form and decorated with geometric
designs painted in pigments.
To produce these pottery vessels, it was necessary to fire them in kilns
or ovens at about a 1000 or more degrees, and as George Soulie de Morant
says, "in a good oven, with a forced draught, implying an advanced culture".
Therefore some knowledge of furnaces, kilns and moulds must have been
known about a thousand years earlier than the earliest properly identified
bronze. Who can tell what excavations in China, scientifically conducted,
might further bring forth?
The method of casting bronze vessels by the early Chinese, known as
the "cire perdue" or "lost wax" process, was unquestionably limited to a
family or guild of craftsmen to whom were entrusted their production, and
who must have sacredly guarded the secrets and traditions of the processes
6 Preliminary Report on Archaeological Research in Kansu. Y. G. Andersson, Peking, 1925.
10
of their craft. In fact, this time-honored tradition of jealously guarding
the secrets of a craft, as the late Prof. Hirth said, "is a feature of Chinese
social life in that specialties in art and workmanship are treated as a monopoly
of certain families on which no outsider is allowed to trespass, and these
secrets are so well-guarded that a branch of art may die out with the last
scion of the family that created it, as in the case of Fu Chow lacquer, the
secret of which was lost during the T'ai Ping rebellion.
No contemporary account is known of the technical processes or of the
furnaces, crucibles and moulds used, because of the secrecy that surrounded
the production of these bronzes, and the general wanton destruction that took
place in the Ch'in dynasty (246-207 B.C.) when Emperor Shih Huang Ti
broke the ritualistic cult by ordering the melting down of all bronzes and the
burning of all books having reference to past history of the empire.
His ambitious desire was to have the history of China commence with
himself as its first ruler, under the pretext that the government should not be
fettered by ancient usages. The literati who pertinaciously adhered to former
usages were either imprisoned or burned alive. Likewise, many scholars and
ministers were put to death for having failed in obedience to this edict. Then
it was that the sacred vessels which had been handed down for centuries from
father to son with their records, were hidden by those who treasured and
cherished them. In this manner, early documentary evidence was lost or
destroyed, or perhaps still lies hidden in the bowels of some mountain-side or
river-bed.
Following the death of the tyrant Shih Huang Ti, and later upon the
overthrow of the Ch'in dynasty which he founded, reverence for the relics
so intimately connected with their ancestors came again into vogue. Great
attempts were made to recover hidden bronze vessels and their records. Their
traditional uses, secretly transmitted from memory recitals by scholar to
scholar in the past centuries in order to keep within the edicts established by
Shih Huang Ti, were now again openly recorded and discussed. Thus was
established the nucleus of the literature which grew richer as new discoveries
of ancient bronzes were made, and vaster with every succeeding century.
Ever since, archaeologists, historians, and sinologues have been kept busy
interpreting not only the vessels and their ornamentation, but also their
pictographic and ideographic inscriptions. These had become a lost language
as a result of the many sweeping changes introduced in the preceding dynasty
when an attempt was made to unify and standardize the styles of writing by
a compulsory change in script and character writing. Even today, diverse
renditions are given by the few great scholars who are able to decipher and
translate these inscriptions.
These dedicatory and honorific inscriptions met with on the bronze
sacrificial vessels enable us to establish their antiquity by the epigraphical
determinations made from them. To date, unfortunately, no specimen, even
of a utilitarian character, fashioned from bronze, has been unearthed to which
a date earlier than the Shang dynasty can be ascribed.
11
RALPH M. CHAIT.
"Consider again some thousand-year-old bronze,
jealously preserved in the collections of emperors: its
solemn and rude form, its powerful curves, its priestly
scrolls betoken its high ritual destination: from the
depths of the hard, resonant metal well up the sombre
tawny suffusions of its glowing patina; a patina that
spreads in smoky splendours, in living flushes, in
sudden pallors, in poisonous greens beneath the outer
skin of the mysterious substance. It lives before our
eyes to the very core of its substance, where slumber
the virtues of so many metals fused by the heat of the
flame whose memory they keep."
from "China" by EMILE HOVELAQUE
12
CATALOGUE
No. 1. DOUBLE OWL BRONZE WINE Kettle and Cover,
One of the rarest bronzes in the collection. Superior and larger
than the only other one known which measures but 8 inches, in the
famous Baron Sumitomo's collection housed in Japan.
The kettle bears pictographic inscriptions cast in the interior bottom
and inside of cover, reading "Lo tso fu Kwei" meaning "Lo had this
vessel made on behalf of or in memory of his father Kwei". Kwei
is one of the cyclical signs which were used as personal names under
the Shang.
Type yu, Shang period.
Height, 13 inches.
Width, 9 inches.
No. 2. BRONZE PHOENIX BOWL,
Type I, completely gilded in the interior.
Chou period.
Height, 534 inches.
Diameter, 8 inches.
No. 3. RECTANGULAR FOUR-FOOTED BRONZE CEREMONIAL VESSEL,
An inscription consisting of five lines and twenty-five characters is
cast in one of the long inner sides. It relates that an emperor of the
Chou dynasty, pleased with the services of a certain Te, bestowed
upon him five strings of cowrie-shells which were used by Te for the
casting of this precious bronze vessel.
Type ting, Chou period.
Height, 9½ inches.
Sides: Length, 7 and 534 inches.
No. 4. CRESCENT-SHAPED BRONZE SWORD,
A bronze sword of exactly the same crescent-shaped type, is in the
collection of the Field Museum. It was found in Southern Mongolia,
and the conclusion is therefore warranted that this type of sword
was peculiar to the Hiung-nu, corresponding to our Huns, with
whom the Chinese were constantly at war for many centuries. These
swords were cast, of course, by Chinese founders for the Hiung-nu.
Chou period.
Length from tip, 164 inches.
No. 5. RECTANGULAR BRONZE Vessel,
Bears inscriptions which relate that "Ko-su kung had this vessel made
for the offering of sacrifices to his deceased father and grandfather,
13
No. 7.
that he might obtain long life, and that this vessel might serve as an
eternal treasure to his descendants for ten thousand years”.
No. 6. BRONZE BEAKER,
No. 8.
Type, double fu; Chou period.
Length, 114 inches.
Width, 8 inches.
Height, 7¼ inches.
Originally this vessel was gilded. Bears inscriptions made in the
mould, consisting of three characters of Shang style, reading "Kia
shi tso", meaning "The historiographer made this vessel in memory
of his father Kia". Kia is also one of the cyclical signs which under
the Shang served as a personal name.
Type tsun, Shang period.
Height, 11 inches.
Diameter of opening, 84 inches.
RECTANGULAR GILDED BRONZE VESSEL WITH ROOF-SHAPED COVER,
This ceremonial vessel is the only one of its kind known in gilded
bronze. There is a similarly-shaped but ungilded vessel in the Freer
Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
Type fang-i, Ch'in period.
Height, 134 inches.
Length, 7¼ inches.
Width, 64 inches.
Globular Gilded Bronze Wine Jar,
The lei was a receptacle for carrying wine to the shrine where
ceremonial offerings were made to the God of Heaven, and to
ancestors. The decorations on the vessel are all of geometric
character with a rhythmic parallelism, and because of the symbolism
attached to its triangular and other designs, the motif represents a
sort of landscape in hieratic style,-heavenly powers controlling
the phenomena of the sky and atmosphere framed by the mountain
ranges of the earth.
Type lei, Ch'in period.
Height, 9¾ inches.
Diameter, 7 inches.
No. 9. PAIR OF GILDED BRONZE TAZZAS WITH COVERS,
Receptacle and cover are of globular shape, and are very beautiful
and harmonious in form. In regard to this type of vessel, called
tou and its development see Laufer's "Chinese Pottery of the Han
dynasty". These two receptacles are the only two known in gilded
bronze. The ceremonial gilt bronze vessel in the Lucy Maud
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Buckingham Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, acquired from
Mr. Ma, though comparable in quality and technique, is of a
different though not dissimilar form, having a shorter foot giving
it a squattier appearance.
Type tou, Ch'in period.
Height, 7½ inches.
Diameter, 9½ inches.
No. 10. GILDED BRONZE Vase,
An exceedingly rare vase of which type there are only three known.
The other two, differing slightly in shape, formerly belonged to
Mr. Ma; one is now in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts, and the other is in the Lucy Maud Buckingham collection, Art
Institute of Chicago. The one above-described is the third of this
rare set of three.
Type hu, Ch'in period.
Height, 13 inches.
Diameter at opening, 534 inches.
No. 11. LARGE GILDED BRONZE Plate,
This extraordinary and unique specimen, distinguished by its
enormous size, beauty of design, and perfect technique, is decorated
all over on both sides, and is the outstanding and finest gilded
bronze known in the Oriental or Occidental world, and far excels
in beauty and technique the only other similar known plate, which
is in the celebrated collection of the Marquis Hosokawa, in Japan.
Type p'an, Ch'in period.
Diameter, 2014 inches.
Height, 3/4 inches.
No. 12. LARGE ANIMALIZED BRONZE WIne Vessel and Cover,
Of this great masterpiece of bronze casting, Dr. Laufer says: "No
description can render justice to the beauty of this vessel, and the
large variety and complexity of its design. It rises before our eyes
like the lost Atlantis, as an attempt at depicting primeval ideas of
the world's creation, or some of the favorite evolutionary theories
entertained by China's ancient philosophers".
Of this type there is but one other (smaller) known in Occidental
collections, measuring 30 cm. high, which belongs to Mr. and Mrs.
Eugene Meyer of Washington, D. C.
Type I, Shang period.
Height, 19½ inches.
Length, 21 inches.
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No. 13. UNIQUE TRIPOD LIBATION VESSEL,
This bronze libation cup is of unusual size and decoration, and there
are but two other examples like it known. One is in a famous
collection in the Middle-West, and the other is in the collection of
Baron Sumitomo, illustrated on Plate 88 of his catalogue. His
however lacks many of the magnificent features of the one herein
described.
Type kin, with two spikes surmounted by crested birds; Chou period.
Height, 18½ inches.
Diameter, 8½ inches.
No. 14. GILT BRONZE SACRIFICIAL VESSEL AND Cover.
IN THE FORM OF A RECUMBENT OX,
An inscription of eight characters is cast in the vessel to the effect
that "Hien mei-sho made this sacred vessel in memory of his ancestor
Ting". This vessel is cast in two parts, head and back of animal
forming the lid, and covered with a network of frets forming the
background, with superimposed designs of monsters on each side of
the body.
Type I, Chou period.
Length, 9½ inches.
Height, 6 inches.
No. 15. BRONZE Beaker,
With interesting, unusual light green patina.
Type tsun, Chou period.
Height, 10% inches.
Diameter at opening, 9% inches.
No. 16. BRONZE ANIMAL, TIGER,
Almost completely mineralized by its light green malachite patina.
Chou period.
Length, 834 inches.
Height, 4 inches.
No. 17. BRONZE CEREMONIAL VESSEL WITH TWO HANDLES,
The interior bottom bears an unusually long inscription cast in the
mould of some eighty odd characters which at the time of the print-
ing of this catalogue had not yet been completely deciphered, and the
epigraphical determinations are still in preparation.
Type I, Chou period.
Height, 4% inches.
Diameter at opening, 7½ inches.
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