A LARGE BRONZE ARROW VASE, TOUHU Song/Yuan DynastyA LARGE BRONZE ARROW VASE, TOUHUSong/Yuan DynastyThe compressed globular body rising from a splayed foot crisply cast with archaistic taotie masks on a leiwen ground, the tall slender neck adorned on with a pair of playful chilong, the top of the neck flanked by a pair of tubular lug handles, decorated with key-fret pattern, the shoulders with elegantly curved quatrefoil pattern above the plain body divided by four flanges. 50cm (19 3/4in) high, 6.2kg.宋/元 銅饕餮雷紋投壺Provenance:The Brian Harkins Collection來源：布萊恩·哈金斯珍藏The quatrefoil pattern on the shoulder was a popular motif during the Spring and Autumn period to Han dynasty, which was called shidi wen (persimmon sepal pattern) by Chinese scholars. See the design on the top of the lid of a gilt-bronze wine vessel, zun, late Western Han, in the Shanxi Provincial Museum, which is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji (Complete Collection of Chinese Bronze), Beijing, 1998, vol.12, p.40. It was rarely seen on the designs from Jin to Tang dynasties, however, appeared again in Song dynasty and seemed to have resumed its popularity in the Yuan dynasty.Compare the outline of the present leaves with the shape of a gilt-silver 'Kuixing' dish, Southern Song dynasty, excavated in Jiangxi, illustrated by the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Zhongxing Jisheng: Nansong Fengwu Guanzhi (The Achievement of the Southern Song Dynasty), Beijing, 2015, p.234. Compare also the petals on the shoulders of a bronze vase, 14th/15th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc.no.:2019.264.壺口圓唇，口沿兩側鑄貫耳，上飾細密回紋錦地，壺頸攀附二螭龍，螭龍修長，獨角，三爪，尾不分叉，躬身成鋬，肩部起地一層作柿蒂狀，圓鼓腹，出四短厚扉棱，腹部每面光素，圈足外撇高企，上飾仿古饕餮紋四面。此壺造型典雅大氣，不著餘飾。肩部所飾柿蒂源自戰漢時期，西漢銅器及漆器蓋頂所飾柿蒂紋。參考山西博物院一件西漢晚期銅鎏金樽，其蓋鈕之下所飾便是此種柿蒂紋，見《中國青銅器全集》，北京，1998年，卷12，頁40。晉代至唐代極少再見此紋飾。宋代重新出現，但不常見，可比較江西出土一件南宋銀鎏金魁星盤，其形狀便如此件之四瓣柿蒂，見浙江省博物馆編，《中興紀勝: 南宋風物觀止》，北京，2015年，頁234。