Sotheby's New York "Important Chinese Art" auction, on September 23, sold more than 300 pieces of Chinese art works for more than 22 U.S. million dollars. Among the items, there was a glass-embellished bronze vessel dated from the Warring States period sold for 8,307,000 U.S. dollars.
This bronze vessel with gold and silver embellishments and polychrome glass was an individual design, probably created for some royal patron. According to the official introduction, the art piece must have represented the peak of luxury in the Warring States period (475-221 BC).
According to records, the vessel was the collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949). The Belgian industrialist, banker, and collector lent the pot and 27 other pieces of Chinese art to the Royal Academy of Art in London for the 1935 International Exhibition of Chinese Art.
Three other known bronze vessels with related glass inlays. /Sotheby's
Formerly in the famed collection of Stoclet, this archaic vessel features innovative glass inlays that were virtually unseen in museums and the marketplace.
Records indicate that there are only three other known bronze vessels with related glass inlays. From the group, only one piece, excavated in Hebei, north China, reached the public and became famous; the other two came onto the market around 1930, entered Japanese collections, but have been hardly seen since.
The present piece, too, has not been reported on or exhibited since 1938.
According to previous media reports, the highlights of Asia Week New York Sotheby's auction also includes a private collection of Kangxi imperial porcelain, a collection of Chinese jade treasures by Junkunc, and a 9th or 10th-century Nepalese gilt copper figure of Avalokiteshvara.
(Cover: A gold, silver and glass-embellished bronze vessel, warring states period, 4th or 3rd century BC. /Sotheby's)