Catalog (17)

An excellent pictorial reference book specializing in Song Dynasty ceramics with very good informative text by Rose Kerr. This is an especially well-photographed book with about 120 color photos covering all areas of Song Dynasty ceramics including Ru and Jun wares, Xing and Ding wares, Yaozhou wares, Cizhou wares, Celadon wares, Qingbai wares, and Jizhou and Jian wares. In our candid opinion, it's not enough of a reason to purchase an antique merely for the sake of a free book, but any client...

An excellent pictorial reference book specializing in Chinese tomb sculptures. There are about 70 high quality, full color photos with text both in Chinese and English. The pieces represented cover mostly the same periods as the Bower book on the Solomon Collection, namely the Han, Northern Wei, Northern Qi, and Tang Dynasties, but this book also goes a little further to cover the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties as well. In our candid opinion, it's not enough of a reason to purchase an antique ...

An excellent pictorial reference book documenting the famed Anthony M. Solomon Collection of Chinese Tomb Sculptures. There are about 60 high quality, full color photos plus some very informative text by Virginia Bower. The pieces represented mostly cover the Han, Northern Wei, Northern Qi, and Tang Dynasties This is a very good book for anybody interested in tomb sculptures. In our candid opinion, it's not enough of a reason to purchase an antique merely for the sake of a free book, but any...

An excellent pictorial reference book focusing on tomb items from China's Golden Age with heavy concentration on Tang and Han Dynasty items, but Eastern Zhou, Warring States, Spring and Autumn, and Qin Dynasty Periods are covered as well. There are over 120 color photos, most pieces are bronzes and/or gilded bronzes, but there are also some jade and early pottery pieces represented as well. The text is also very informative. In our candid opinion, it's not enough of a reason to purchase an anti...

An excellent pictorial reference book specializing in Neolithic Period / Early Chinese wares with good informative text by Regina Krahl and other contributors. Truly a must-have reference book for anybody interested in Neolithic / Early Chinese pieces. There are about 65 color photos all of which are really quite excellent. In our candid opinion, it's not enough of a reason to purchase an antique merely for the sake of a free book, but any client already seriously contemplating a purchase can ...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a fine and large Ming Dynasty lead-glazed pottery ridge (roof) tile, 15th-16th century, Hongzhi through Jiajing Period (1488-1566), depicting a guardian-demon ferociously modeled with bulging eyes, protruding fangs, pointed horns, thick musculature, and standing in defensive posture astride a cloud-swirl with fists clenched around what would have been a weapon made of wood or iron, now since rotted away and lost to time. This cloud-swirl between the demon and t...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a very fine Ming bronze of Guanyin, 16th-17th century, crisply cast with a wonderfully serene countenance, a tiered and pierced diadem (crown), urna on the forehead signifying divine sight, body jewelry, and seated with right hand in verada mudra upon a double lotus base. This piece has developed a nice deep brown / dark gray patina with several areas of greenish verdigris suggesting high copper content to the bronze. We think this piece compares well with tw...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a rare earthenware Buddhist offering vessel dating from either the Song or Yuan Dynasty (960-1368 AD). This offering vessel is one of a group of several highly obscure and esoteric pottery pieces hailing from Yunnan Province in Southwestern China. The formal scholarship on these pieces is unfortunately thin at best, and we are currently aware of only one publication addressing these pieces at all, which is Michael Teller's Offering Vessels of Yunnan. As Teller ...

From our Early Chinese Collection, an exceptional Northern Qi Dynasty Tomb Guardian (550 - 577 AD), boldly modeled in full military armor with chest and back plates, fringed mail tunics over knee guards, and battle helmet with leather side flaps. His left hand rests upon a leonine shield, the right hand would have clenched a wooden spear which has decomposed long ago. This imposing figure reflects the strong facial features typical of other known Northern Qi statuary, such as the ominous bulging...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a large and magnificent Southern Song Dynasty qingbai funerary urn (960 - 1279 AD). Based upon published and nearly identical examples dated to 1209 AD, we can probably safely date this piece closer to circa 1190 - 1230 AD. The lower bell of this extraordinary lidded urn is smooth and glazed, while the upper section is deeply ribbed and glazed featuring hand-formed and applied figures of people and animals, including a coiled dragon, a tortoise, a cockerel, a...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a large Machang Phase jar from the Majiayao Culture (2300 - 2000 BC), originating from what is now Gansu province, China. Of well-known and documented form, this fascinating vessel is approximately 4,000 years old and comes with an Oxford TL test. Larger and better potted than is usually found, it is painted with anthropomorphic designs in purplish-black mineral pigments typical of these wares. The meaning of these designs is still the subject of scholarly deba...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a rare glazed buddhist offering vessel with Oxford TL test from Yunnan Province, Song Dynasty China (960-1279 AD). The reddish-tinged and heavily potted buff body is decorated with a carved lotus leaf pattern in high relief, signifying “purity,” with the entire vessel covered in a rich emerald-green glaze with a few areas of slight iridescence from burial.

This offering vessel is one of the best examples we have seen from a group of highly obscure a...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a very good Han Dynasty hu jar, most probably Western Han (circa 100 BC - AD 08), of well-known and documented form with a dish-shaped mouth, a molded animal frieze on the upper shoulder, and with two taotie mask handles on either side of the jar. Constructed of reddish earthenware covered in a green lead flux glaze that is somewhat crackled and has fired to an attractive brown in some spots, this jar has acquired a silvery iridescence from burial.

Han D...

From our Early Chinese Collection, an excellent neolithic tripod (Li) pottery vessel from the Xiajiadian Culture of either Inner Mongolia or Liaoning Province, circa 2500-1500 BC. These strange, other-worldly looking vessels belie their true age, which is an astonishing 3500 to 4500 years old. Constructed of a buff colored earthenware with partially hollowed-out udder-shaped legs, it has a slender and well-burnished body that flares out to a wide rim. This particular piece has signs of root grow...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a very rare, large, and striking Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) stoneware jar with lid, executed in a straw colored glaze over buff colored stoneware (or proto-porcelain as it is sometimes referred to, which is clay fired at higher temperatures than pottery but lower temperatures than true porcelain, which had yet to be invented at that time). The jar has four sets of very distinctive and unusual udder-shaped protuberances in columns of 5, and four illegible, presu...

PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE RECENTLY RE-ACQUIRED THIS VERY FINE COCOON JAR FROM A CLIENT WHO IS LIQUIDATING HIS ANTIQUE HOLDINGS DUE TO HEALTH ISSUES AND MEDICAL EXPENSES: WHILE WE ARE VERY SADDENED TO LEARN OF THIS CLIENT'S CONDITION AND CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES, WE ARE GRATIFIED AT LEAST TO BE ABLE TO ASSIST THIS WONDERFUL GENTLEMAN IN THIS MANNER, AND TO RE-OFFER THIS FINE COCOON JAR ONCE AGAIN: From our Early Chinese Collection, a very good Qin or Han Dynasty (221 BC- 220 AD) cocoon jar, of well-know...

From our Early Chinese Collection, a fine and rare pair of Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 AD) qingbai vases on integral bases, with a molded six panel floral sprig design and flared petal-form aperture. The glaze is a very good and very attractive translucent blue/blue green color, deeper where pooled in the recesses. The underside is burnt orange-brown from the firing. They bear exhibition labels from the "1953 South Africa National Gallery Chinese Exhibition," and also the "Henry Brown Collection....