An archaic bronze bell (Bo), Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period | 東周 春秋 青銅蟠螭紋鎛

Christie's London, 24th June 1968, lot 168. 

Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997). 

Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968-present, coll. no. E.8.38. 

倫敦佳士得1968年6月24日，編號168

吳權博士（1910-1997）收藏

吳蓮伯博物院，1968年至今，編號E.8.38

Rose Kerr et al., Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Hong Kong, 2011, pl. 27.

柯玫瑰等，《Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum》，香港，2011年，圖版27

Exquisitely cast with confronting dragons on its handle and a large taotie mask on the lower register, this magnificent bell (bo) is a fine example of bronzes created during the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC). Known as bo zhong for their level rims and loop handles, bronze bells of this type would have been suspended from a frame and sounded by striking with a hammer.

The present piece is closely related to a set of nineteen bo zhong of graduated sizes, unearthed from the tomb of Zhaoqing, a high-ranking official of the Jin state during the late Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC), in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, now in the collection of Shanxi Archaeology Institute, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji / The Complete Collection of Chinese Archaic Bronzes, Eastern Zhou, vol. 8, Beijing, 1995, pls 111-114. Compare also a larger bronze bell preserved in the British Museum, London (acc. no. 1965,0612.1), included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 181. Compare a similar, slightly larger bell sold in these rooms, 21st September 2021, lot 39.