Object details
Accession number
S15w15.1-2
Provenance
Possibly discovered in 1900 in Xi'an county, China
Collection of a Mr. Ting, a collector in Weixian (Shandong province), 1900 - September 1913.
Collection of Marcel Bing (died 1920), a dealer in Chinese and Japanese art, Paris, 1913.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from Marcel Bing, Paris for $30,000 in February 1914 through Bernard Berenson. Paid for in full in January 1916. (as late Zhou, Qin, or Han)
Marks
Two markings appear on one of the bears (S15w15.2)
Inscribed (underside of proper right front paw): one character, ju [meaning "immense" and perhaps the maker's mark]
Inscribed (underside of right rear paw): one character, you [meaning "right"]
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 103, pl. 4.
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 55.
George L. Stout. Treasures from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1969), pp. 88-89, ill.
Yasuko Horioka. "Chinese Sculpture-II." Fenway Court 3 (February 1970), pp. 17-24, nos. 1a-1d.
Yasuko Horioka et al. Oriental and Islamic Art: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1975), pp. 10-12, no. 3, ill.
Rollin van N. Hadley. Museums Discovered: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 1981), pp. 196-97, ill.
Rollin van N. Hadley (ed.). The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Isabella Stewart Gardner 1887-1924 (Boston, 1987), pp. 510-13, 516-17.
Michelle C. Wang et al. A Bronze Menagerie: Mat Weights of Early China. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2006), pp. 10-12 fig.1, 87-93 cat. 4.
Alan Chong and Noriko Murai. Journeys East: Isabella Stewart Gardner and Asia. Exh. cat. (Boston: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2009), pp. 36-37 fig. 36.
Rights and reproductions
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