Page 138 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

century metal ewers, as seen in a silver example in the Carl Kempe Collec-
tion, Stockholm; 9 in addition, the spout of the Kempe ewer issues from the
mouth of a dragon, as do the spouts of several ceramic examples, 10 as on
the Clague pieces. The descending lotus petals in over-glaze gilding that
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sometimes ornament the tall bases of ceramic examples perhaps inspired
the openwork leaves on the bases of the Clague ewers.
Sixteenth-century ewers with bodies of flattened pear shape evolved
from the full-bodied, pear-shaped ewers that were popular in Jingdezhen
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porcelain and Longquan celadon ware during the late fourteenth and early
fifteenth century. Although they have short necks and footrings, such pear-
shaped ewers have a short, emphatic lip, a long, curving spout (secured by
a strut), and an arched handle with both a loop at its crest and an inden-
tation in its spine to complement the vessel's strong curves - the very
features that sixteenth-century potters drew upon in fashioning ewers of
flattened pear shape and that seventeenth-century metalsmiths elaborated
to create the Clague ewers.
Despite the Clague ewers' origins in sixteenth-century Chinese ves-
sels, their attenuated necks and domed covers exhibit the influence of
Iranian metalwork. In particular, a large cast-brass ewer in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London, represents a type of sixteenth-century Iranian
ewer (aftabe) that perhaps played a role in the development of both the
Clague bronze ewers and their Wanli blue-and-white counterparts. Cast in
Western Iran about 1560, the large brass ewer has a compressed globular
body, long waisted neck, straight vertical lip, and high domed cover with
decorative knob. 14 Like the Clague ewers, it has decorative panels sur-
rounded by interlaced scrolls on its circular body but, differing from them,
it has small horizontal flutes around its neck and shoulder, a simple, S-
curve handle, and a tulip-shaped finial at the end of its spout. Proof that
ewers of this type found their way to China awaits discovery, but the
similarity of form to Chinese ewers suggests they might have, a realistic
possibility given trade relations between China and the Middle East in
Ming times, not to mention sixteenth-century Chinese interest in Islam
[see 25], and the continuing dialogue between Chinese and Persian art.
Though configured in an S-curve, the handle of the Iranian ewer lacks
the decorative flair of the arched handles on the Clague ewers and on
sixteenth-century ewers of flattened pear shape. In fact, arched handles
come from Chinese tradition, where they had long been a staple of
Chinese potters and metalworkers. Tang silversmiths, for example, had

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