17TH/18TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF GILT-COPPER EWERS
17TH/18TH CENTURY
The compressed bodies decorated on two sides with ogival panels, one depicting a bird perched on a pine branch, the other with a butterfly in flight above peony, both in crisp, high relief against a stippled ground, flanked by incised peony meander that continues up onto the tall slender neck, with attenuated tubular spout opposite a handle terminating in a ruyi head at the bottom, raised on a spreading pedestal foot, the domed cover surmounted by a seated buddhistic lion
8 3/8 in. (21.2 cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

A similar pair of ewers is illustrated by R. Mowry, China's Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, Phoenix Art Museum, 1992, pp. 131-6, no. 26, where the author, p. 134, describes the ewers as having origins in sixteenth century Chinese porcelain vessels, and ascribes the attenuated necks and domed covers to the influence of Iranian metalwork. Like the present ewers the ogival panels also depict peony and pine decoration. See, also, the similar ewer sold in our London rooms, 8 June 2004, lot 416.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All