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Lot Essay
The decoration of the current vessel with Buddhist lions is particularly charming.
Although the lion is not native to China, its image has long been important to the repertoire of Chinese iconography. Lions are often seen in stone statuary, thus symbolising protection and law, and from the Tang dynasty, appeared on decorative arts. Buddhist lions playing with a brocade ball, which became the most popular form of imagery for the lion, appear later and might relate to the tradition of lion cubs emerging from balls.
Compare the current ewer with an almost identical one formely in the Kitson Collection and then in the Pierre Uldry Collection, illustrated in H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné - Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry Museum Rietberg, Zurich 1985, pl.98.
For an identical decoration see the dish illustrated in C. Brown, Chinese Cloisonné - The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1980, pp.22-23, pl.3.
On both vessels, the lions represented are exactly the same, they are playing with brocaded balls surrounded by the same background filled with spirals and the 'Precious Things'.
For similar ewers, although decorated with lotuses, see H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Op. Cit., pl.99 ; and nternational Exhibition of Chinese Art, The Royal Academy of Art, London 1935-36, p.170, pl.2013.
Although the lion is not native to China, its image has long been important to the repertoire of Chinese iconography. Lions are often seen in stone statuary, thus symbolising protection and law, and from the Tang dynasty, appeared on decorative arts. Buddhist lions playing with a brocade ball, which became the most popular form of imagery for the lion, appear later and might relate to the tradition of lion cubs emerging from balls.
Compare the current ewer with an almost identical one formely in the Kitson Collection and then in the Pierre Uldry Collection, illustrated in H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné - Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry Museum Rietberg, Zurich 1985, pl.98.
For an identical decoration see the dish illustrated in C. Brown, Chinese Cloisonné - The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1980, pp.22-23, pl.3.
On both vessels, the lions represented are exactly the same, they are playing with brocaded balls surrounded by the same background filled with spirals and the 'Precious Things'.
For similar ewers, although decorated with lotuses, see H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Op. Cit., pl.99 ; and nternational Exhibition of Chinese Art, The Royal Academy of Art, London 1935-36, p.170, pl.2013.