YUAN-MING DYNASTY (1279-1644)

Details

A BRONZE ELEPHANT-HANDLED BOTTLE VASE
YUAN-MING DYNASTY (1279-1644)
The vase is decorated with an archaistic mask band to just below the rim, flanked by two elegant elephant handles to the neck, all above evenly-spaced upright cicada-form lappets and a raised foliate collar at the shoulder of the globular body. The everted foot is decorated with a band of stylised kui dragons on a leiwen ground. The bronze is of a rich deep tone
11 in. (28 cm.) high, inscribed Japanese wood box

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Priscilla Kong

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Lot Essay

Compare the present vase to one of similar form with straight flaring neck and globular body, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated in Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, pp. 44-45, pl. 33. See also two bottle vases of slightly earlier date from the Ulrich Hausmann Collection sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2014, lots 3329 and 3343, both with mask bands around the neck and elephanthead handles with their trunks slightlylifted from the vase, possibly inspiring the decor of the present lot.

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