Page 153 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

chrysanthemum collar in place. A downward-projecting vertical flange
anchors the neck assembly to the body, relying mainly on tension for
effect. Pins hold the handles in place; now slightly stretched, they permit
the joins more play than was originally the case. The openwork designs of
the cover were pierced with punches. Chatter marks in the vertical walls
indicate that the decorative panels were carved into the censer's sides.
Although portions of the decoration within the quatrefoil panels were
carved, the high-relief and openwork elements were created separately
and soldered into place; the ring-mat backgrounds were punched. The
gilding was accomplished through the application of an amalgam of
powdered gold and mercury which was then heated to evaporate the
mercury, leaving a thin coating of gold.
Technical and stylistic similarities suggest that catalog numbers
twenty-six through twenty-nine were most likely created by related work-
shops. All of the vessels in this group are made of raised copper, partially
or completely gilded after cold working, and all except the circular covered
box [27] show a similar darkening of the seams where separately prepared
elements were soldered together. In addition, the pieces share low-relief
floral decoration set against a ring-punched ground in a slightly sunken
geometric panel; the floral motifs of the censer [30] and of the pair of tall
ewers [26] include stalks and branches soldered into place with small open
spaces between their undersides and the ring-punched grounds. Both the
censer [29] and the cylindrical ewer [28] have chrysanthemum collars,
while the cylindrical ewer [28] and the covered box [27] have gunmetal
gray surfaces and ring-mat grounds so finely punched that they resemble
tightly woven fabric in texture; the ring-mat grounds of the censer [29]
and of the pair of tall ewers [26], on the other hand, are more loosely
punched so that they resemble those of Tang silver, the ultimate source for
such textured grounds. Each piece in the group is thus linked to another -
with the result that they show a marked cohesiveness in style and in tech-
nique of manufacture - suggesting that they come from related workshops,
or even from the same workshop; small differences in style indicate that
they were likely produced over a number of decades.

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 4 9