Lot Essay
Another Yongzheng-marked bronze garniture is in the Buddhist shrine, the Hall for Worshipping Buddhas, situated in the Palace of Benevolent Peace where empresses and consort dowagers worshipped and is illustrated in Daily Life in the Forbidden City, p. 299, fig. 467. Cf. two smaller baluster vases cast with identical designs, both bearing Yongzheng marks, the first in the Robert H. Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, included in the exhibition China's Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 37, where the author suggested the jing zhi mark indicated that the vase was a presentation piece probably for a temple, ibid, p. 178. Another example is illustrated by Moss, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, no. 68.
Ritual bronzes of this type cast for the altar, comprise five vessels or wu gong: a censer, xianglu, candlesticks, zhutai, and vases, huaping. According to early woodblock prints these were uniformally arranged in a line across the altar with the censer as a centrepiece flanked on either side by candlesticks and the vases placed at the two ends. It is extremely rare to find marked examples of such substantial size and in a complete set as in the present lot. As pointed out by Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, p. 30, comparatively fewer candlesticks survive; censers and vases are more numerous because of their multiplicity of usage. Bronze vessels cast for the imperial palaces were governed by set regulations and under a section entitled 'Rules for making sacrificial vessels and ornaments for temple use', sizes were designated for altar vessels for the Yuan Ming Yuan, ibid.
The archaistic decorative theme is a revival of Song dynasty style which in itself was an interpretation of earlier Shang and Zhou bronzes. The motifs on Qing examples despite retaining its archaic origin is more stylised and less crowded in design.
(US$80,000-100,000)
Ritual bronzes of this type cast for the altar, comprise five vessels or wu gong: a censer, xianglu, candlesticks, zhutai, and vases, huaping. According to early woodblock prints these were uniformally arranged in a line across the altar with the censer as a centrepiece flanked on either side by candlesticks and the vases placed at the two ends. It is extremely rare to find marked examples of such substantial size and in a complete set as in the present lot. As pointed out by Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, p. 30, comparatively fewer candlesticks survive; censers and vases are more numerous because of their multiplicity of usage. Bronze vessels cast for the imperial palaces were governed by set regulations and under a section entitled 'Rules for making sacrificial vessels and ornaments for temple use', sizes were designated for altar vessels for the Yuan Ming Yuan, ibid.
The archaistic decorative theme is a revival of Song dynasty style which in itself was an interpretation of earlier Shang and Zhou bronzes. The motifs on Qing examples despite retaining its archaic origin is more stylised and less crowded in design.
(US$80,000-100,000)