AN UNUSUAL GILT-BRONZE DOUBLE VASE

QIANLONG NIAN ZHI FOUR-CHARACTER MARK INSCRIBED IN TWO RECTANGLES AND PROBABLY OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

AN UNUSUAL GILT-BRONZE DOUBLE VASE
QIANLONG NIAN ZHI FOUR-CHARACTER MARK INSCRIBED IN TWO RECTANGLES AND PROBABLY OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
Heavily cast as two conjoined pear-shaped vases decorated in relief with two elaborate archaistic dragons, one with wings positioned on the lower body of one vase, the other with extensive angular scroll body spanning both vases, its head joining the two vases at their mouth rims, with a small lion mask suspending a ring handle on the side of one neck and a dragon mask suspending another loose ring on the other neck, the base of each vase inscribed with a rectangle enclosing two of the characters of the four-character mark
6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) high, wood stand

Provenance

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York.

Exhibited

Hanover, New Hampshire, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Dartmouth College, Gifts and Loans from the Mr. & Mrs. William B. Jaffe Collection of Asian Art, June 1964, no. 69.

Lot Essay

Compare the related gilt-splashed double vase from the W.W. Winkworth Collection sold in our London rooms, 16 November 1999, lot 106, and another gilt-splashed double vase in the Robert H. Clague Collection illustrated by R. Mowry, China's Renaissance in Bronze, Phoenix, 1993, p. 190, no. 40. See, also, a champlevé enamel and gilt-bronze example, dated 1786, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 26-27 April 1998, lot 562; and the pair to it, also dated 1786, illustrated by H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1989, no. 304.

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