Download CHINESE ARCHAIC AND GILT BRONZES FROM THE

CHINESE ARCHAIC AND GILT BRONZES FROM THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT HATFIELD
ELLSWORTH TO BE SOLD AT SOTHEBY’S ON MARCH 19, 2002
A Magnificent and Important Archaic Bronze Set of Carriage and Horses, Eastern Han Dynasty, Est.
$750,000 / $1 million
On March 19, 2002 Sotheby’s in New York will offer for sale The Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection: Chinese
Archaic & Gilt Bronzes. Heralded for his unerring eye and sense of style, Ellsworth assembled a superior collection
of bronzes in the 1970s and 80s that formed an important part of his larger collection of furniture and decorations
which were shown in his extraordinary 5th Avenue apartment. The offering from Mr. Ellsworth’s collection is
highlighted by a magnificent and important archaic bronze Set of Carriage and Horses, Eastern Han Dynasty which
is estimated to sell for $750,000/$1 million. The collection also features many other rare masterpieces which form a
comprehensive art history lesson in Chinese archaic and gilt bronzes from 16th Century BC Shang Dynasty to 10th
and 11th century AD Tang and Liao cultures. Sotheby's exhibition and sale will run concurrently with “Ancient
Sichuan: Treasures from a Lost Civilization,” a major exhibition of Chinese archaic bronzes from Sichuan at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 4th -June 16th). The Ellsworth collection is estimated to bring $2.5/3.5 million.
Joe-Hynn Yang, Head of Sotheby's Chinese Department in New York, said, “The
Robert H. Ellsworth Collection has long been an active resource for the
appreciation of collectors and visiting scholars in the field of Chinese art. As one of
the most eminent dealers in Asian art and a key authority on classical Chinese
furniture and modern paintings, Ellsworth, who is now the Chairman of The Board
of Directors for China’s Cultural Relics Bureau International, is greatly honored in
China through his efforts in repatriating art and restoring historic villages. His
generosity is evident in recent gifts of modern Chinese paintings to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, which last year hosted a major exhibition of paintings
from his collection, and Chinese calligraphy to the Freer Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. Sotheby's is proud to host this auction which will indeed be the
premier highlight of Asia Week this spring. ”
Chief among the highlights to be offered from Mr. Ellsworth’s collection is The
Ellsworth Chariot Group, a magnificent and important archaic bronze Set of Carriage
and Horses from the Eastern Han Dynasty, 1st century AD. Bronze horses are
extremely rare and bronze carriages have been found only in very few highly
prestigious burials. The practice of using bronze figures of horses and carriages as
tomb furnishings followed the example set by the first Qin emperor, Qinshihuang, in
whose gigantic, luxurious tomb they appeared for the first time. However, the examples
from the Qin period differ from those of the Han Dynasty. The importation of the
‘heavenly horses of Ferghana’ brought to China a powerful, more elegant breed of
horse, which is reflected in the present tomb figures with a lighter carriage construction
that could be pulled by a single horse. The Ellsworth Chariot group features a pair of
robustly modeled Fereghan horses linked with delicate chains and bronze straps to the
broad rectangular vehicle with a long axle leading twelve-spoked wheels and an even silvery-green patina with some
malachite encrustation and ample traces of pigment to the charioteer figure. The present group is closely related to
the famous horses and carriages discovered in an Eastern Han tomb at Leitai, Wuwei county, Gansu province, which
also included the world-famous figure of a ‘flying horse’ resting its hoof on a swallow which is currently in the Gansu
Provincial Museum and was recently exhibited in New York at the Asia Society’s “Monks and Merchants: Silk Road
Treasures from Northwest China”. The Ellsworth Chariot group is estimated to sell for $750,000/1 million. (Pictured:
A fine copper-and-malachite inlaid bronze food vessel and cover, or Dui, Eastern Zhou Dynasty, est. $60/80,000)
An additional highlight from the collection is an important and
extremely rare archaic bronze Tripod kettle and linked cover, Ying,
Late Westen Zhou Dynasty which carries an estimate of
$300/400,000. Crisply cast with studded ‘dragon’ and bearing the
dedication “Father Shi Yu made this Ying,” no other vessel of this form
has ever been offered at auction. Only five other ying vessels are
recorded—all in museum collections—but none match the present
example in quality, clarity of decoration and balance. This, added to
the breathtaking detail of a tiger leaping to devour a resting bull, while
linking the cover to the vessel, and the five sealscript characters cast
inside the cover, makes this vessel a historical landmark.
Also on offer is an important massive archaic bronze ding from the Shang Dynasty, 12th
century BC, estimated to sell for $150/200,000. The deep u-shaped bowl is cast below
the lipped rim with a single register of four taotie masks raised above a leiwen ground.
Each mask is centered on a vertical flange, surmounted by a pair of thick upright handles,
all supported on three columnar legs each with a taotie mask. Extremely rare because of
its massive dimensions (13 inches in diameter by 18 ½ inches in height), the bronze is
covered by a dark green patina with a light encrustation on the surface. (A very rare
archaic bronze set of inscribed kettle and brazier Stand (He) from the Eastern Han
Dynasty, est. $100/150,000)
Mr. Ellsworth’s Collection also includes an important and very rare archaic bronze set of
inscribed kettle and brazier Stand (He) from the Eastern Han Dynasty, 1st and 2nd
century AD (est. $100/150,000). Comprising a globular kettle and cover with a balancing
pole and a brazier stand with a bear finial, the kettle is left undecorated with the exception
of a three-column inscription on the shoulder of the kettle which reads: Nanping shong
jiujin liuliang rong yidong sisheng and refers to the hall where the ewer was kept and the measurements of the object,
which is an unusual characteristic of a Han bronze vessel. Similar bear finials to the present one have been exhibited
at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Shodô Museum in Tokyo and included in the exhibition Kandai no
bijutsu in Osaka in 1975.
Also included is a very fine and rare gilt-bronze pierced Ordos plaque,
Northwest China, Mongolia, 3rd/2nd century BC, which depicts a tiger
devouring a human. While scenes of animals in combat are common in
Ordos bronzes, this scene of a man being eaten by a tiger is extremely
rare. Although most belt plaques came in pairs of mirror opposites, no
identical buckles of this type have been published. It is estimated to sell for
$30/40,000.
Estimated at $60/80,000 is a fine copper and malachite inlaid bronze food
vessel and cover, or Dui, from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Warring States Period (pictured, page 2, left). This
spherical body is intricately cast in intaglio with copper wires with geometric whorls on the top and the base which
enclose wide registers of stylized hook and volute with alternating units inlaid with malachite.