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Lot Essay
This exceptionally rare figural silver ewer depicts Zhongli Quan, one of the Eight Daoist Immortals (Baxian). The immortal is often depicted as a scholar with big belly seen through his partially open robe and holding either a fan or a gourd. A very similar depiction of Zhongli Quan can be seen in a painting on silk attributed to Zhao Qi (active early 1500s) in The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. no. 1976.13 ( https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.13). (Fig. 1) Zhongli Quan was venerated by silversmiths and often depicted drinking wine, making him a fitting subject for a silver wine ewer. The gourd on the back of the current figure serves as the opening for pouring wine into the figure and the opening in the top of the gourd he holds in his raised hand serves as the spout.
The base of the figure in the back is inscribed with the name, ‘Zhu Huayu,’ followed by a seal, Bishan. Zhu Hauyu is the sobriquet of Zhu Bishan, the most famous Chinese silversmith of all time, thought to have lived during the late Yuan dynasty. He is known for making lifelike sculptural silver drinking vessels in a range of forms including fungus, shrimp and crabs, and especially sculptural raft cups, such as the celebrated example in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art bearing a date corresponding to 1345. (Fig. 2) Other raft cups attributed to Zhu Bishan with a seal or inscription include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei and one the Palace Museum, Beijing, both of which are also inscribed with a date corresponding to 1345. A silver raft cup with a female immortal and child in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, bears an inscription stating it was modeled after works by Zhu Bishan and a date corresponding to 1766, which speaks to Zhu’s continued fame and his reputation as an artist worth emulating. See J. Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, no. 384.
Despite Zhu Bishan’s reputation, extant works associated with him, such as the current figure and the aforementioned works, are exceptionally rare. One of the only other known published works associated with Zhu is a handled silver cup in the Museum of Art Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm bearing a seal-shaped signature of Zhu Bishan and decorated with a landscape in a style suggestive of rhinoceros horn or bamboo carving. See B. Gyllensvard, “Two Yuan Silver Cups and Their Importance for Dating of Some Carvings in Wood and Rhinoceros Horn,” The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 43, 1971, pls. 1 and 2.
Commentary in Ming and Qing textural sources provide context for Zhu Bishan’s sculptural drinking vessels that take the form of figural subjects, such as the current sculptural ewer. For example, the Ming artist and essayist Chen Jiru (1558-1639) wrote in his Nigulu of an exquisitely detailed silver sculpture by Zhu depicting the Han dynasty beauty Wang Zhaojun sitting astride a horse and playing a pipa. According to Chen, the belly of the horse had a small opening that may have served as a small drinking cup. Thus, like the current figure, the Wang Zhaojun sculpture likely doubled as a wine vessel.
The Russian stamped hallmarks on the back of the base, one of which includes the date ‘1763,’ indicates the current figure had found its way to Russia by that time. In the 17th and 18th centuries, China and Russia exchanged diplomatic gifts in order to strengthen trade relations and solidify peace and border agreements. Among the gifts presented by the Qing emperors to Russian tsars and ambassadors were luxurious works of silver, gold and silk. The mark ‘N-114’ engraved on the bottom of the robe of the current figure appears to be an inventory mark of the type inscribed on works that entered royal art collections in Europe and Russia. Similar inventory marks can be seen inscribed on works in the collection of the Russian empress Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796), whose vast collection included large numbers of Chinese silver, gold and porcelain, much of which is now largely preserved in the State Hermitage Museum. In the second half of the 1920s, after suffering the consequences of a devastating civil war, the need to raise money prompted the Soviet government to sell large numbers of artworks that had been amassed by the old regime to wealthy collectors in the U.S. and Europe.
The base of the figure in the back is inscribed with the name, ‘Zhu Huayu,’ followed by a seal, Bishan. Zhu Hauyu is the sobriquet of Zhu Bishan, the most famous Chinese silversmith of all time, thought to have lived during the late Yuan dynasty. He is known for making lifelike sculptural silver drinking vessels in a range of forms including fungus, shrimp and crabs, and especially sculptural raft cups, such as the celebrated example in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art bearing a date corresponding to 1345. (Fig. 2) Other raft cups attributed to Zhu Bishan with a seal or inscription include one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei and one the Palace Museum, Beijing, both of which are also inscribed with a date corresponding to 1345. A silver raft cup with a female immortal and child in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, bears an inscription stating it was modeled after works by Zhu Bishan and a date corresponding to 1766, which speaks to Zhu’s continued fame and his reputation as an artist worth emulating. See J. Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, no. 384.
Despite Zhu Bishan’s reputation, extant works associated with him, such as the current figure and the aforementioned works, are exceptionally rare. One of the only other known published works associated with Zhu is a handled silver cup in the Museum of Art Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm bearing a seal-shaped signature of Zhu Bishan and decorated with a landscape in a style suggestive of rhinoceros horn or bamboo carving. See B. Gyllensvard, “Two Yuan Silver Cups and Their Importance for Dating of Some Carvings in Wood and Rhinoceros Horn,” The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 43, 1971, pls. 1 and 2.
Commentary in Ming and Qing textural sources provide context for Zhu Bishan’s sculptural drinking vessels that take the form of figural subjects, such as the current sculptural ewer. For example, the Ming artist and essayist Chen Jiru (1558-1639) wrote in his Nigulu of an exquisitely detailed silver sculpture by Zhu depicting the Han dynasty beauty Wang Zhaojun sitting astride a horse and playing a pipa. According to Chen, the belly of the horse had a small opening that may have served as a small drinking cup. Thus, like the current figure, the Wang Zhaojun sculpture likely doubled as a wine vessel.
The Russian stamped hallmarks on the back of the base, one of which includes the date ‘1763,’ indicates the current figure had found its way to Russia by that time. In the 17th and 18th centuries, China and Russia exchanged diplomatic gifts in order to strengthen trade relations and solidify peace and border agreements. Among the gifts presented by the Qing emperors to Russian tsars and ambassadors were luxurious works of silver, gold and silk. The mark ‘N-114’ engraved on the bottom of the robe of the current figure appears to be an inventory mark of the type inscribed on works that entered royal art collections in Europe and Russia. Similar inventory marks can be seen inscribed on works in the collection of the Russian empress Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796), whose vast collection included large numbers of Chinese silver, gold and porcelain, much of which is now largely preserved in the State Hermitage Museum. In the second half of the 1920s, after suffering the consequences of a devastating civil war, the need to raise money prompted the Soviet government to sell large numbers of artworks that had been amassed by the old regime to wealthy collectors in the U.S. and Europe.