SONG-MING DYNASTY (960-1644)

This type of animal-head rhyton can be traced to Persia, such as the example with the forepart ram in the Metropolitan Museum Collection, dated to 5th Century BC. These vessels probably found their way to China via Silk Road, where example of a Tang Dynasty onyx and gold cup with an animal head now in the Shaanxi Museum Collection, and a line drawing illustrated in the Northern Song dynasty Imperial bronze compendium, ‘Illustrated Catalogue of Antique Objects in the Emperor Huizong Collection’ (fig.1).

The present lot is further incised with a taotie mask, flanked on one side by a dragon and on the other by a phoenix, derived from archaic bronze decorative motifs.