MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY

Details

A VERY RARE GILT-BRONZE TWIN-HANDLED ‘LOTUS SCROLL’ VASE
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
The tall slender vase is cast with two crescent-shaped dragon-head handles to the neck which flanks low-relief birds perched on two floral leafy branches rising from rocks which encircle the shoulder. The body is decorated with bold leafy scrolling lotus blooms above a gilt-decorated spreading foot. The base is cast with a mark reading ‘nei zao’, ‘made for the court’ encircled by two dragons.
17 1/4 in. (43.5 cm.) high

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Lot Essay

During the Ming dynasty, bronze vessels were often modelled in the form of archaic bronzes. The form of the current vase is probably derived from the archaic bronze hu with an elongated neck. Compare to a late Ming bronze vase (52 cm. high) of similar form and decoration, sold at Christie’s London, 6 November 2012, lot 171, and another late Ming bronze vase of comparable form (48.1 cm high) illustrated in Sydney L. Moss Ltd., The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, Hong Kong, 1991, no. 64. The mark on the base, nei zao, suggests that the vase was made by the imperial household, which is further supported by the two five-clawed dragons encircling the mark. No other identical example with this mark appears to have been published to date.

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