KANGXI PERIOD, 17TH CENTURY

The duomuhu form is derived from a Tibetan prototype, the bey lep, originally made of wood and used for storing milk tea in Lamaist monasteries. The columnar Tibetan ewer does not appear to have been favoured during the Ming dynasty, even during reigns when Tibetan Buddhism flourished. However, in the following Qing dynasty, during the Kangxi Emperor's reign (1662-1722), the renewal of interest in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism saw lavish ewers of this form appear in metalwork and porcelain.

The duomuhu form is rare among cloisonné enamel wares and it is even more unusual to find a pair of ewers. Comparable single cloisonné ewers with this distinctive five-clawed dragon design may be found in museum collections including one published in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Asia Society, New York, 1989, cat. no. 159; and another from the collection of the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, illustrated in Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, cat. no. 90. A comparable pair of ewers of this size, design and form were sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 3104.

The dynamic, repeating dragon design on the present lot gives the ewers an imperial quality. The dragon is symbolic of the Emperor and the depiction of dragons with five claws was typically reserved for works of art made for the Emperor and his imperial household. A duomuhu ewer simulating wood with gilt bronze straps from the Beijing Palace Museum was published in the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, China: The Three Emperors, London, 2005, no. 55, p 151, together with an imperial cloisonne enamel and gold duomuhu from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) Palace Workshops, no. 54, p 151.

Chinese works of art have long been prized in the West by the English and European monarchy. It is interesting to compare the form of these ewers to the magnificent pair of Kangxi period ormolu-mounted aubergine-glazed duomuhu ewers, pictured here (Fig 1.), known as "The Marie-Antoinette Ewers". They were one of Queen Marie-Antoinette's (1755-1793) most treasured possessions, acquired by Louis XVI in Paris at auction in 1782. They were displayed by the Queen in her private chambers in the Cabinet de la Méridienne at the Chateau de Versailles. They were sold at Christie's, London, 9 June 1994, lot 35, from the Wernher collection at Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire.