A RARE EARLY MING GILT-BRONZE TRIPOD STAND

Details

A RARE EARLY MING GILT-BRONZE TRIPOD STAND
DA MING YONGLE NIAN SHI INSCRIBED MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

Finely cast in the form of a ring with beaded outer border held in the open jaws of the three dragons which form the legs, their heads turned upward from tightly arched necks cast with ruyi and foliate decoration continuing down the slender, curved bodies and repeated at the base to create a coiled, pierced, foliate tail, the mark written in reverse in a line inside the ring
5¼in. (13.3cm.) high

Exhibited

London, Michael Goedhuis, Chinese and Japanese Bronzes, A.D. 1100-1900, 1989, no. 14

Lot Essay

The mark, which reads from left to right, may be translated, 'bestowed during the reign of Yongle of the great Ming Dynasty'

Based on the diameter of the ring, this stand could have been made as a support for a cup or bowl. Michael Goedhuis in the entry notes for this piece in the exhibition Catalogue, op. cit., further proposes that the stand might also have supported a crystal ball through which one would have been able to see the mark

Compare a gilt-bronze and cloisonné stand of very similar form sold at Sotheby's, London, June 7, 1988, lot 40