A PAIR OF INCISED GILT-BRONZE PEAR-SHAPED VASES

PROPERTY OF THEREZA N DE GOUVEA COY

Details

A PAIR OF INCISED GILT-BRONZE PEAR-SHAPED VASES
17TH/18TH CENTURY

Each heavy, thick-walled vessel incised on either side with a five-clawed, scaly dragon leaping amidst clouds in pursuit of a flaming pearl above rocks and babao in frothing waves, with a pair of cloud-decorated, ribbed bands applied with ruyi-head handles suspending loose oval rings encircling the waisted neck below a band of petal lappets, repeated on the flared pedestal foot, and with a narrow band of further dragons confronted on flaming pearls below the mouth rim--11 in. (27.8cm.) high, huanghuali stands (2)

Provenance

Collection of Ambassador Joao de Bianchi, first Portuguese ambassador to Washington, D.C.

Lot Essay

A pair of similar vases, part of an altar garniture, from the Shenyang Palace Museum, China, was included in the exhibition, Imperial Life in thw Qing Dynasty, Singapore, Catalogue, p. 60. Compare also a pair of porcelain vases of this shape, decorated with dragons in white reserved on a blue ground bearing a Jiajing mark and of the period in the British Museum, illustrated in The World's Great Collections, Oriental Ceramics, vol. 5, pt. fig. 200, and a gilt-bronze example, dated to the Wanli Period, sold in these rooms November 29/30, 1984, lot 553