A RARE BRONZE 'MYTHICAL BEAST' WEIGHTHAN - SIX DYNASTIES |

strikingly modeled in a powerful stance on a circular base of stylized mountains, its ferocious head with the mouth agape revealing sharp fangs, below bulging eyes and two ridged curling horns, its compact body with wings issuing from the shoulders and a long bifurcated tail extending down from the end of its arched back, its stout legs terminating in paws with long claws, the surface with malachite encrustation

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Several related bronze mythical beast weights of this type have been published. Two from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull, one gilt with incised details, attributed to the Han dynasty, the other undecorated with a two-character inscription to the base, attributed to the Six Dynasties, were sold in these rooms, 6th December 1983, lots 59 and 61 respectively. Another mythical beast weight of this type, cast with incised details, attributed to the Six Dynasties, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Place Museum. Bronze Articles for Daily Use, Hong Kong, 2006, pl. 141. 

Compare a bronze mythical beast, rendered in a similar style, but without the circular base, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Mayer, exhibited in Mostra d'arte cinese [Exhibition of Chinese art], Venice, 1954, cat. no. 160; another included in the exhibition Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 116. See also an undecorated mythical beast weight, modeled in a striding form on a base, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat, included in the exhibition Art of the Six Dynasties, China House Gallery/ China Institute in America, New York, 1975, cat. no. 39, and later sold in these rooms, 7th November 1980, lot 9; and another cast with an additional serpentine dragon curled under the mythical beast, exhibited in Arts of Ancient China, J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 2006, cat. no. 18.