Table Leg in the Form of a Bear

CultureChinese

Date4th-3rd century B.C.E.

MediumBronze inlaid with gold and silver

DimensionsOverall: 5 × 4 3/4 inches (12.7 × 12.07 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-137/31

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

East Asian Art

Terms

DescriptionOne of a pair of table legs in the form of a bear, with its two front legs upraised, with inlaid designs of spirals, whorls, triangles, and volutes.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Chinese Bronzes in American Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City,October 13-November 27, 1938.

Provenance

With Zie Soey Koo, Shanghai, China, by July 1931;

Purchased from Zie Soey Koo, through Langdon Warner (1881-1955), by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

NOTES:

[1] "Kansas City - Itemized Purchases in China and Japan, 1932," Harvard Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 15, folder 28, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Published References

Master Bronzes: Selected from Museums and Collections in America, February 1937 (Buffalo, New York: Albright Art Gallery, 1937), no. 23 (repro.).

Pacific Cultures/ Department of Fine Arts, Division of Pacific Cultures (San Francisco: Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939), 34 (repro.).

Tombs of Old LoYeng, vol. 2 (Sekai Bijutsu Zenshu: Tokyo, 1951), 52, fig. 104 (repro.).

World History: Ancient China, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Sekai Bunka Sha, November 25–December 7, 1958), 188 (repro.).

Werner Speiser, China: Geist und Gesellschaft (Baden-Baden: Holle, 1959), 55 (repro.).

Mario Bussagli, Bronzi Cinesi (Milano: Fabbri, 1966), 14, pl.4 (repro.).

George Savage, A Concise History of Bronzes (New York: Praeger, 1969), 112, no. 94 (repro.).

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