AN UNUSUAL DATED ARCHAISTIC BRONZE JUE

PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTION

Details

AN UNUSUAL DATED ARCHAISTIC BRONZE JUE
DATED TO THE THIRD YEAR OF QIANLONG, CORRESPONDING TO 1739

Raised on three slender, curved blade supports, the deep sides cast with a raised band of leiwen spanned on one side by a loop handle issuing from a monster mask, with a pair of capped posts rising from the rim, the dated inscription cast in raised characters within a rectangular cartouche beneath the spout may be translated, "Made in the auspicious dawn of the third year of Qianlong in Zhongdong," the bronze with a dark brown patina--6 5/8in. (16.8cm.) long

Lot Essay

Zhongdong is the second month in winter, the eleventh lunar month

Compare the Ming prototypes of this jue, also cast with dated inscriptions, illustrated by Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, pls. 17 and 18