Page 137 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

veins and punched dots that texture their surfaces. The undersides of the
ewers are plain. Probably for wine, these two ewers have perhaps been a
pair from the beginning, rather than simply two identical ewers that led
separate lives until matched together in modern times, as indicated by
their complementary lion finials: one rests its left foot on its brocaded
ball, while the other rests its right foot on the ball.
Often said to be of Middle Eastern form, ewers of this type are firmly
rooted in Chinese tradition, though they reflect a degree of influence
from Persian metalwork. Their Chinese ancestors are not ritual bronze
vessels from high antiquity, but gold, silver, and porcelain ewers made
during the Ming dynasty. In relation to Chinese ceramics, the Clague
vessels fall midway between Wanli-period blue-and-white ewers with long
1
necks and small bodies and the related but more mannered Kangxi-period
ewers, 2 suggesting that they were made in the seventeenth century. Like
the Clague vessels, Wanli ewers have a globular body, an elongated neck,
an S-curved spout, and an arched handle; their bases are less elaborate,
however, and their proportions less attenuated. Kangxi ewers from the late
seventeenth century, on the other hand, resemble the Clague vessels in
having a tall base, an attenuated neck, and a compressed globular body,
but they are often more mannered than the Clague ewers, with an octa-
gonal neck and base framing a circular body and with a handle and spout
that are square in section; in addition, on such Kangxi ewers the handles
are often painted to resemble plaited rattan and both the spout and the
top of the handle issue from the mouths of dragons.
Such bronze and porcelain vessels derive from a type of ewer with
body of flattened pear shape that rose to popularity during the first half of
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the sixteenth century in silver, 3 porcelain, jade, 5 and guri lacquer. 6 In addi-
tion to their long spouts and arched handles, such sixteenth-century ewers
often have a domed cover with a finial in the form of a seated lion; 7 many
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rest atop a tall, circular foot and some have elongated necks (though not as
attenuated as those of the Clague bronzes). Almost all porcelain examples
have a loop at the top of the arched handle for linking ewer and cover
together with a fine chain, the chain attaching to the cover through the
small opening between the lion's legs. An integrally fired ceramic strut
virtually always connects the upper end of the spout to the neck on porce-
lain examples; not needing such structural support, bronze ewers typically
forego the cloud-shaped reinforcement. Too fragile for use on porcelains, a
decorative panel often appears at the bottom of the handle on sixteenth-

T I I E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N 1 3 3