An Archaistic Gold and Silver-Inlaid Bronze Ewer and Cover, He

MING DYNASTY

Details

An Archaistic Gold and Silver-Inlaid Bronze Ewer and Cover, He
Ming Dynasty
The compressed body raised on three supports formed by a bear standing beneath a bird with spread wings, and decorated with a band of gold and silver-inlaid scrolls reserved on a 'leiwen' ground below a further inlaid band at the base of the neck, the spout formed by the neck and head of a bird with a small rodent lying between the ears and below the head of the animal-form openwork handle, the cover en suite below a small taotie mask and ring handle, with some green 'encrustation'
8½in. (21.6cm.) across

Lot Essay

A very similar archaistic ewer is illustrated by J.A. Pope, et al., The Freer Chinese Bronzes, Washington, 1967, vol. I, pl. 105. The design of both this ewer and the present ewer are based on Warring States prototypes, such as the ewer with very similar openwork handle and spout illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; Diaosu bian; Yuanshi shehui zi Zhangou diaosu (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture; Sculpture from Primitive Society to the Warring States), Beijing, 1988, vol. 1, p.119, no. 149; and another with similar legs surmounted by birds with spread wings illustrated by C.F. Kelley and Ch'en Meng-Chia, Chinese Bronzes from the Buckingham Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1946, pl. LXII.

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