A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL ARCHAISTIC VESSEL ON STAND, GUI
VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL ARCHAISTIC VESSEL ON STAND, GUI

QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER INSCRIBED MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

細節
A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL ARCHAISTIC VESSEL ON STAND, GUI
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER INSCRIBED MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
Made in imitation of Zhou dynasty prototypes, the oval vessel decorated on the sides with taotie masks set between petal lappet borders and below decorative bands on the neck, with a pair of handles formed by gilt-bronze dragons with backward-turned heads, raised on a separately made, but integral, rectangular base decorated on the sides by framed panels of confronted archaistic birds, the base also gilded, the domed cover decorated en suite below a globular finial cast in openwork as swirling clouds
14¾ in. (37.5 cm.) high

拍品專文

The shape and decoration of this rare cloisonné vessel, are based on early bronze prototypes, especially those of Western Zhou dynasty date, such as the bronze gui on stand in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, shown in fig. 1. While the shape of the Sackler gui and its tall integral base are similar, the decoration of long-tailed birds is not. The taotie mask decoration of the cloisonné gui is of the type more usually found on Western Zhou bronze gui.

One other cloisonné enamel vessel in the form of a gui on stand of the same size (37 cm.), also with Qianlong mark and of the period is illustrated by Dr. G.G. Avitabile, Die Ware aus dem Teufelsand, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, p. 150, no. 80. Both vessels are decorated with taotie masks, but the stand of the present vessel is taller with a plain gilt band dividing the masks on the stand, and the handles of the exhibited example are loops issuing from monster masks, rather than the more ornate dragon-form handles of the present vessel. The knops of the covers are also different. Both of these unusual vessels exhibit a more faithful representation of archaic themes than is usually seen in cloisonné enamel.