Page 139 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

equipped ewers with arched, strap-like handles at least as early as the
ninth century, often joining the handle to the neck with a short horizontal
15
bar. Potters soon followed suit, probably in the tenth century, producing
globular ewers with short cylindrical necks and arched handles, the handles
often with a tiny loop at the top of the arch for linking ewer and cover 16
and often with a short horizontal arm connecting handle and neck. 17 A
standard feature by the Song, arched handles were incorporated into
pear-shaped ewers in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, into
flattened pear-shaped ewers in the sixteenth century, into Wanli blue-
and-white ewers in the late sixteenth century, and then into the Clague
ewers in the seventeenth century.
Differing in shape from the ovoid panels on sixteenth-century ewers,
the ogival panels on the Clague ewers have a single barb at the top and
two rounded lobes at the bottom, a form that finds precedent in fifteenth-
18
century celadon-glazed ewers from the Longquan kilns. Such celadon ewers
often claim peonies as their principal decoration, as do many Ming and
Qing ceramics and other decorative arts [see discussion, 27]. By late Ming
times the peony was considered a symbol of wealth, due to its numerous
petals, so its appearance is regarded as an auspicious wish to the viewer.
Because it often attains great age, the pine numbers among the symbols
of longevity, its gnarled trunk, weathered branches, and perpetually green
needles also standing as emblems of strength in the face of adversity.
Reflecting the late Ming interest in both luxury goods and bright colors, the
surfaces of the ewers were gilded to simulate pieces fashioned in gold. 19
These ewers were prepared in sections hammered from sheet copper
and joined together with solder; in most cases seams betray the joins. The
body and neck of each ewer comprise four separate parts: a round-bottomed
bowl, constricting shoulder, attenuated neck, and circular lip. Encircling the
widest part of the body, bisecting the decorative panels as it goes, a seam
reveals the join of bowl and shoulder. Another seam, partly obscured by
the engraved hibiscus scrolls above the ogival panels, indicates the join of
neck and shoulder. The seam along the back of the neck resulted from
soldering together the longitudinal edges of the copper sheet that was
hammered around a form to shape the tubular neck. Hollow tubes, the
handle and spout are affixed to the body with solder, the join of handle to
body reinforced with pins at the points of attachment; the small loop at
the top of the handle and the decorative plaque at its base were affixed
with solder. Like the lip, the vertical band encircling the bottom of the

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