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Lot Essay
Compare the very similar vessel, dated to the Qianlong period, in the collection of Les Arts Décoratifs-musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, illustrated by Bèatrice Quette (ed.) in Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, p. 266-67, no. 84, and p. 87, fig. 5.10, where a page from the eighteenth century bronze catalogue Xiqing gujian, juan 21, which depicts a bronze vessel of the same shape, is illustrated. (Fig. 1) Two other similar vessels, both dated to the eighteenth century, are illustrated by Gunhild Avitabile in Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné- und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, pp. 180-81, nos. 101a and 101b. During the eighteenth century vessels of this shape were made not only in cloisonné enamel, but also bronze and porcelain, and a celadon-glazed vase of Kangxi date in the W.T. Walters Collection is illustrated by S.W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art, New York, 1980 ed., p. 83. This unusual shape is first seen in bronze during the Han dynasty (221 BC-AD 220), such as the example included in the exhibition, Bestiare, Beurdeley & cie, Paris, March 1993, no. 25, and a gilt-bronze example dated Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-200), sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2002, lot 80. (Fig. 2) Sir Percival David in 'Hsiang and His Album', T.O.C.S., 1933-34, vol. 11, pp. 22-47, reproduced, pl. XVIII, fig. 29, a page from the Song dynasty album Xuanhe bogu tulu (Illustrated Description of Antiquities in the Imperial Collection in the Xuanhe period (1119-26), compiled by Wang Fu), vol. XII, no. 38, which illustrates a bronze vessel of this form on the left and a later 'black ding' version on the right.