CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, ÉPOQUE KANGXI (1662-1722)

This style of lacquer decoration with delicate mother-of-pearl inlays seems to have come to prominence in the latter part of the Kangxi reign. If this technique was most often used on organic material such as wood, it was also applied on porcelains or metal pieces of which only a few exemples are known. Known lacquered and mother-of-pearl inlaid porcelain examples include: a baluster vase sold in our London rooms, 10 November 2015, lot 308; a cylindrical brushpot sold at Sotheby's New York, 11 September 2019, lot 831; a baluster vase preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. no. 79.2.104. Bronze examples such as our present one are extremely rare, see a bronze mother-of pearl inlaid black lacquer ewer in the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, inv. no. B62M11.