拍賣筆記 vol.456 蘇富比紐約2026：西周中期公元前十世紀青銅象尊，戴克成收藏 - Sotheby’s New York 2026, An Archaic Bronze Elephant-Form Ritual Wine Vessel of Zun, Deydier Collection, Middle Western Zhou Dynasty

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法國青銅器古董商戴克成（Christian Deydier）位於香港的畫廊於 2025 年 11 月 22 日不幸遭遇竊盜案。被盜器物為此次蘇富比紐約2026年9月16日上拍的兩件拍品：東周銅虎、西周象尊。這起事件當時在古董文物圈引發了極大的震撼。東周銅虎傳承顯赫，來自Alfred Schoenlicht (1876-1955)和Frederick M. Mayer (1899-1974)的收藏，參見《拍賣筆記 vol.455 蘇富比紐約2026：東周青銅虎形飾，Schoenlicht、梅耶收藏》；這件西周象尊據稱存世兩件，本品以及另一件收藏在寶雞青銅器博物館的同款（帶有蓋），或為一對。本件拍品最早來源只能追溯到2001年。

被盜的拍品在以往的紀錄中往往因為名氣大噪而創出佳績，參考倫敦鐵路工人退休基金專場賣出的唐三彩黑馬（1989年倫敦蘇富比 Lot 56），曾在香港預展時被盜，後由日本著名古董商下條啟一代替客人以374萬英鎊購藏。參見王秋生發表在財新專欄的文章《一個鐵路退休基金如何重塑中國古藝價值｜國際拍場》

西周中期公元前十世紀青銅象尊

An exceedingly rare and important archaic bronze elephant-form ritual wine vessel (Zun), Middle Western Zhou dynasty, 10th century BC

Import Tariff

Live auction begins on:

2026 September 16, 09:00 PM HKT

Estimate

300,000 - 400,000 USD

Description

Length 11¼ in., 28.5 cm

Condition Report

In general good condition. There is a restored break around the bottom of the trunk. Several restored patches to the body, including a small area behind the left ear, minor patches above each of the hind legs, an area near the tail, and possible consolidation to the loop on the back. The front left foot rim with a small restuck chip. There is a stable crack to the left shoulder. Cover is missing. X-Ray images available upon request.

整體品相良好。象鼻於根部斷損經重接。象身見些許輕微補修，包括左耳後方見一處、近後腿上方各見一處、近尾部見一處、背上小圓環或經加固。左前足沿見一小塊斷損經重接。左肩見一處細微裂紋。蓋缺失。X光片可供索取。

出處

東方青銅器有限公司，倫敦，2001年

E. R. 收藏，巴黎，2003年

戴克成，巴黎，2011年

展出

《Rituels pour l’éternité》，戴克成，巴黎及倫敦，2001年，編號12

由於本拍品在2020年9月1日之後進口到美國，所以買家可能需就本拍品支付進口關稅，金額為拍品進口美國當時申報價值的7.5％。除非您要求蘇富比安排運送拍品到美國境外之地址，否則發票上將包括26,250.00美元以及相關的銷售稅。如欲查詢進口關稅的更多信息，請查閱目錄背面的附錄。 如有任何疑問，敬請聯繫tariffs@sothebys.com。

蘇富比資料：

周宗珍彜

青銅象尊

此尊器形古雅，鑄工華麗，在歷來現身藝術市場西周青銅禮器當中，實屬至為重要之其中一例。其造型勻稱，背部曲線舒展，自背而上延至高昂之長鼻，肩部飾以繁複渦狀紋飾，古雅而華美。整器靜穆莊嚴，令人肅然起敬，雖鑄於三千年前，觀之仍覺玄然撼動。

古代青銅器作鳥獸形者甚罕，其中以象為形者，尤為珍稀，感染力動人心魄，宏麗非凡。此器長鼻、雙牙、體態穩重，明顯可辨為象形，然而整體造型與目前所見商代（約公元前1600年–約公元前1046年）出土之象形青銅器差異顯著。可參考著名之「Camondo Elephant」，體態恢宏，通體遍施紋飾，今藏巴黎吉美博物館（館藏編號 EO 1545），曾展於 Rarities of the Musée Guimet，紐約 Asia House 藝廊，1975年，編號55；另比一例，華盛頓 National Museum of Asian Art ，館藏編號 F1936.6a-b，圖載多部著作，包括 John Alexander Pope、Rutherford John Gettens、James Cahill 及 Noel Barnard，《The Freer Chinese Bronzes》，華盛頓，1967年，圖版40。另可比較湖南博物院藏湖南醴陵縣仙霞公社獅形山出土醴陵象尊，見 《中國青銅器全集》，卷4，北京，1998年，圖版 130。上述諸例紋飾及造型皆較本器更具商代風格，亦更接近寫實象形。

新石器時代、商、周之際，是否尚有大象活躍於中原，及其分布若何，學界尚未有定論。然而觀其形制演變，自商代較寫實之象形器，至本器近乎豕形之抽象形式，或可推知：即便古代中國境內縱曾有象，至本器製作之時，象或已因捕獵而日漸絕跡，遂轉化為工匠心中由記憶與傳說所重構之形象。柳揚論此類罕見紋飾，鑄造與鉚接諸技術蓋由西南傳入中國，象紋流入中國亦如是；參考柳揚，〈 殷商中原青铜器象纹的南方源头〉，《湖南省博物館館刊》，卷十二，2016年8月，頁1-14。是以至本尊鑄造之時，昔日所受啟發已屬記憶與神話；商代青銅工匠依靠想像，將象之形象重新塑造。

圖一 西周中期 公元前十世紀 青銅象尊 錄於〈陝西省寶鷄市茹家莊西周墓發掘簡報〉，《文物》，卷4，北京，1976年， 圖版3:1

近代史上，與此形相近之尊，似乎僅只一例；出土於陝西寶雞縣茹家莊𢐗伯墓（約公元前950至900年）一號墓，今藏寶雞青銅器博物院，圖見《中國青銅器全集》，卷6 ，北京，1997年，圖版171（圖一）。此器列入國家一級文物，編號 BRM1乙∶23，出土時與兩件鳥形青銅尊，定為西周中期文物，同處西周貴族陵墓之中。其高23.6公分，長37.8公分，尺寸較本器略大；兩者形制則非常接近，器身飾旋動獸紋，象鼻高昂上舉，象目突出，身軀弧形綫條流暢優雅。

此類象尊今日雖極罕見，然而昔時似曾為周代王室不可或缺之重要禮器。古《周禮》（約公元前三世紀），記載周代官制與禮儀，論述朝踐禮時，當用兩獻尊，其再獻用兩象尊，其一盛酒，其二盛潔淨之食物祭品；兩象尊後又屢見於早期文獻之記述、考釋之中，後入明《永樂大典》（1403–1408年），卷3583。

宋代《宣和博古圖》（約1120至1123年）亦論及象尊，並繪一例，或為宋代宮廷所藏（圖二）。編纂者據《禮記》（約公元前3世紀）之說，以象形尊與牛形「犧尊」並列，為其時兩大尊式之一。

左: 圖二 象尊線描圖，錄於宋代《宣和博古圖》（約1120至1123年）

右: 圖三 象尊線描圖一幅，錄於《西清古鑑》（1749–1755年）

除本器及前述寶雞象尊之外，似無其他相近作例傳世。早期史籍所載器物之斷代與描述，往往未可盡信；然而清宮檔案或可證實，昔日宮廷或御藏極少數可參考之例，惟近代未見記載。其一見於《欽定古今圖書集成》（1700–1725年）考工典，形制與前述《博古圖》所繪象尊相近。另比兩例，乾隆年間清宮高古青銅御藏，同樣背負器物，《西清古鑑》（1749–1755年）同樣錄為周代（圖三）。

The Hong Kong gallery of French archaic-bronze dealer Christian Deydier was burgled on 22 November 2025. The two works taken that day are now the same two lots offered at Sotheby’s New York on 16 September 2026: an Eastern Zhou bronze tiger and a Western Zhou elephant-form ritual wine vessel (zun). The theft sent a shock through the Chinese antiquities trade.

The Eastern Zhou tiger has a distinguished early Western collecting history. It passed through the collections of Alfred Schoenlicht (1876–1955) and Frederick M. Mayer (1899–1974). Sotheby’s catalogues the work as “an exceptional and rare archaic bronze tiger-form fitting, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period,” estimated at USD 120,000–150,000.

The Western Zhou elephant zun is rarer still. Sotheby’s describes it as “an exceedingly rare and important archaic bronze elephant-form ritual wine vessel (zun), Middle Western Zhou dynasty, 10th century BC,” length 28.5 cm, estimated at USD 300,000–400,000. Only a handful of elephant-shaped ritual bronzes survive. One close counterpart—with a cover—is the bird-decorated elephant zun excavated in 1974 from Tomb 1 at Rujiazhuang, Baoji, and now in the Baoji Bronzeware Museum. The two have sometimes been discussed as if they might form a pair, though that remains a market and scholarly hypothesis rather than a documented archaeological fact.

Unlike the tiger, this zun has a short published trail. Sotheby’s provenance begins only in 2001: Oriental Bronzes Ltd., London, 2001; E. R. Collection, Paris, 2003; Christian Deydier, Paris, 2011; exhibited in Rituels pour l’éternité, Oriental Bronzes Ltd., Paris and London, 2001, cat. no. 12. In other words, the earliest firm record is Deydier’s own firm at the turn of the century.

Stolen objects that later re-enter the market with a famous backstory have, in the past, sold extremely well. The classic parallel is the Tang sancai black horse from the British Rail Pension Fund, Sotheby’s London, 12 December 1989, lot 56. During the Hong Kong preview the horse was stolen from a shipper’s warehouse, recovered after a police operation, and still reached the Bond Street sale. Tokyo dealer Keiichi Shimojo (下條啟一) bought it on behalf of a client for £3.74 million—then a world record for a Chinese work of art. For that sale and its larger effect on how the market priced early Chinese art, see Wang Qiusheng’s Caixin column, “How a Railway Pension Fund Reshaped the Value of Ancient Chinese Art.”

Whether the Deydier theft will confer a similar premium on these two bronzes will be tested on 16 September. What is already clear is the contrast between them: one object arrives with a mid-twentieth-century European pedigree; the other, for all its rarity and its possible relationship to the Baoji museum example, can be documented in the trade only from 2001.

Provenance

Oriental Bronzes Ltd., London, 2001.

E. R. Collection, Paris, 2003.

Christian Deydier, Paris, 2011.

Exhibited

Rituels pour l’éternité, Oriental Bronzes Ltd., Paris & London, 2001, cat. no. 12.

Additional Notices & Disclaimers

Because this lot was imported into the United States after September 1, 2020, it is subject to an import tariff of 7.5% of the value declared upon entry into the United States. The cost of the tariff, $26,250.00, plus applicable sales tax will be included on your invoice unless you instruct Sotheby's to arrange shipping of the lot to a foreign address. For more information on the import tariff, please review the Symbol Key in the back of the catalogue. If you have any questions, please contact tariffs@sothebys.com.

THE ELEPHANT ZUN

TREASURE OF THE WESTERN ZHOU

Of ancient form, timeless patina and magnificent casting, the present vessel is among the most important examples of Western Zhou bronzeware to ever come to market. Its balanced form tracing a captivating curve along its back and up the grand trunk, accentuated by the complex swirling roundels of its shoulders, the vessel exudes a sense of silence and awe that feels unknowable yet still striking three millennia on from its creation.

Of the small number of archaic bronze vessels fashioned after animals, few are as rare, striking and magnificent as those of elephant form. However, while its open trunk, tusks and grounded form are all undeniably elephantine, the present form is quite distinct from the handful of elephant vessels uncovered in Shang dynasty (ca. 1600 – ca. 1046 BCE) contexts. Compare the famous Camondo Elephant of enormous proportions and uninterrupted surface design, preserved in the Musée Guimet, Paris (accession no. EO 1545) included in Rarities of the Musée Guimet, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1975, cat. no. 55; or the ewer in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington (accession no. F1936.6a-b) illustrated variously including in John Alexander Pope, Rutherford John Gettens, James Cahill and Noel Barnard. The Freer Chinese Bronzes, Washington, 1967, pl. 40. These examples, along with one unearthed from Shixing Mountain, Xianxia commune, Liling City, preserved in the Hunan Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 4, Beijing, 1998, pl. 130 are more clearly Shang in style and surface decoration than the present and – crucially – more elephantine.

Although debate continues as to the extent of elephant presence in the Central Plains during the Neolithic, Shang and Zhou periods, the design continuum from the more representational models of the Shang to the present quasi-porcine form seems to imply that whatever elephants were once present in China, they had largely been hunted to extinction by the time of the present vessel’s creation. As Liu Yang posits in his summary of these rare designs, the elephant motif appears to have arrived in China from the southwest just as casting and riveting techniques had done; see Liu Yang, ‘Yin Shang Zhongyuan qingtongqi xiangwen de nanfang yuantou / Southern Origin of the Elephant Imagery in Late Shang Bronzes from Central Plains’, Hunan Bowuguan Guankan, no. 12, 2016.8, pp 1-14. Thus, by the time of the present zun’s formation, these inspirations had become little more than memories and myths: an abstraction of an elephant reimagined and reformed in the hands of the craftsman for long forgotten purposes.

FIG. 1 AN ARCHAIC BRONZE ELEPHANT-FORM RITUAL WINE VESSEL (ZUN), MIDDLE WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC, ILLUSTRATED IN ‘SHAANXI SHENG BAOJI SHI RUJIAZHUANG XIZHOU MU FAJUE JIANBAO [REPORT ON THE EXCAVATION OF THE WESTERN ZHOU TOMB IN RUJIAZHUANG, BAOJI CITY, SHAANXI PROVINCE]’ , WENWU, VOL. 4, BEIJING, 1976, PLATE 3:1.

Only one other closely related zun of this form appears to have emerged in recent history, uncovered from the tomb of Count Yu (ca. 950-900 BC), Tomb 1 at Rujiazhuang, Baoji county, Shaanxi and now preserved in the Baoji Bronzeware Museum, Baoji, illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, vol. 6, Beijing, 1997, pl. 171 (Fig. 1). This registered National Treasure, officially termed object BRM1乙∶23, was uncovered alongside two bird-shaped bronze zun in an elite funerary context and attributed to the mid-Western Zhou. Slightly larger than the present at 23.6 cm in height and 37.8 cm in length, the elephant shares almost every feature of the present design, from its swirling zoomorphic surface pattern to its upwards reaching trunk, bulging eyes and graceful curving form.

Though exceptionally rare today, such elephant zun appear to have once been considered fundamental to the ritual life of the Zhou royal court. As the ancient classic describing the official rituals of the Zhou state, the Zhouli [Rites of Zhou, ca. 3rd century BCE] describes, for the initial offerings of court ceremonies, two such elephant vessels (xiangzun) were to be used by practitioners to consecrate proceedings. One it seems filled with wine, the other with pure foodstuffs, these two royal xiangzun continued to be written about, expounded upon and clarified in other early historical sources, eventually compiled in the three-thousand five-hundred-and-eighty-third chapter of the official Ming Encyclopedia, the Yongle Dadian (1403–1408).

The Song dynasty Xuanhe bogutu [Illustrations on a wide ranges of antiques from the Xuanhe reign-period, ca. 1120-1123] similarly takes up the subject of the elephant zun, illustrating an example presumably preserved in the imperial court (Fig. 2). In the view of its compilers, relying on the Confucian Book of Rites (Liji , ca. 3rd century BCE), the elephant zun represented one of the two key zun forms of the period, alongside ‘xizun’ of bovine form.

LEFT: FIG. 2 LINE DRAWING OF AN ELEPHANT ZUN, ILLUSTRATED IN XUANHE BOGUTU [ILLUSTRATIONS ON A WIDE RANGES OF ANTIQUES FROM THE XUANHE REIGN-PERIOD, CA. 1120-1123].

RIGHT: FIG. 3 A LINE DRAWING OF AN ELEPHANT ZUN, ILLUSTRATED IN XIQING GUJIAN [CATALOGUE OF XIQING ANTIQUES, 1749–1755].

Beyond the present example and the aforementioned Baoji elephant, no other bronze zun of this magnificent form appears to survive. While the dating and descriptions of vessels in early historiographical sources are often questionable, Qing court sources appear to attest to a very small number of comparable examples may have once been preserved in imperial contexts, though none appear to have been published in modern times: one, illustrated in the Examination of Crafts section of the Qinding gujin tushu jicheng [Imperial compendium of ancient and modern books, 1700-1725] closely resembles the aforementioned Bogu tu example. Two other related zun, also with vessels on their backs, are attested among the archaic bronzes preserved in the Qing court of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736–1795) and are similarly attributed to the Zhou dynasty in his Xiqing gujian [Catalogue of Xiqing antiques, 1749–1755] (Fig. 3).