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Lot Essay
It is very rare to find depictions of the rhinoceros in Chinese art, especially in the Tang Dynasty. Earlier depictions include the late Shang period rhinoceros zun in the Avery Brundage Collection, illustrated by R.Y Lefebvre d'Argencè, The Ancient Chinese Bronzes, San Francisco, 1966, pl. XIX, and another large zun (22 7/8in. long) from the late Eastern Zhou/Western Han Dynasty, found in Xingping Xian, Shaanxi province, included in the exhibition, The Great Bronze Age of China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, New York, Catalogue, no. 93.
By the Tang period the rhinoceros had been extinct in China for about a thousand years. However the image persisted, if rarely, and can be seen as a decorative motif on a pair of silver bowls in the Kempe Collection, illustrated by Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, no. 120.
A rhinoceros was one of the large stone animals lining the spirit road of the first Tang emperor, Gao Zu. This sculpture is now in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated by Barry Till and Paula Swart in the Catalogue for the exhibition, Images from the Tomb: Chinese Burial Figurines, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1988, p. 98, fig. ix.
A similar figure of a rhinoceros but with slightly different treatment of the skin was sold at Christie's New York, 28 March 1996, lot 273. Also compare the present lot to another model of a rhinoceros, dated to the Tang Dynasty, sold at Christie's King Street, 6 November 2007, lot 141.
By the Tang period the rhinoceros had been extinct in China for about a thousand years. However the image persisted, if rarely, and can be seen as a decorative motif on a pair of silver bowls in the Kempe Collection, illustrated by Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, no. 120.
A rhinoceros was one of the large stone animals lining the spirit road of the first Tang emperor, Gao Zu. This sculpture is now in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, illustrated by Barry Till and Paula Swart in the Catalogue for the exhibition, Images from the Tomb: Chinese Burial Figurines, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1988, p. 98, fig. ix.
A similar figure of a rhinoceros but with slightly different treatment of the skin was sold at Christie's New York, 28 March 1996, lot 273. Also compare the present lot to another model of a rhinoceros, dated to the Tang Dynasty, sold at Christie's King Street, 6 November 2007, lot 141.