Page 166 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

covered rectangular censer in the Clague Collection [21], for example, and
to those of the kui dragons that border Kangxi-period white jade plaques
5
and amulets. The interest in texturing otherwise undecorated surfaces -
such as the low-relief chrysanthemum panels above and below the central
knob on these vases - is a Kangxi characteristic, as is the use of varied but
subtle texture patterns. Late Ming bronzes rely on bolder texture patterns -
square leiwen spirals, ring punching, or diapering drawn from the lacquer
tradition - which they restrict to the ground against which decorative motifs
are set. Qianlong and later bronzes typically ornament the surfaces or leave
them plain, but seldom use texture patterns as ornament.
Another Qing characteristic is the substitution of cast bronze stands
for the small wooden pedestals with which the vases might otherwise have
been outfitted, the bronze stands conceived as integral, though separately
cast, parts of the finished works. Often paired with treasured antiquities,
small stands, or pedestals, have a long history in China; their early evolution
remains unclear, but some miniature bronze vessels had been mounted on
6
bronze stands at least as early as the Northern Wei period, their four-legged,
square stands virtually identical in form to the bases of contemporaneous
gilt bronze Buddhist sculptures. The archaeological recovery of miniature
pieces of wooden furniture from Southern Song tombs confirms that fine
craftsmanship was being applied to the production of small-scale wooden
objects by the late twelfth century; 7 whether or not the same workshops
might also have crafted wooden stands for antiquities remains unknown,
but the topic warrants investigation. The table-like bases on some Yuan
bronzes [see 5] and ceramics 8 suggest that such stands were in frequent
use by Yuan times. The Xuande yiqi tupu records that many Xuande bronze
censers were furnished with hardwood stands and covers [see discussions,
23, 24], while Ming paintings and illustrations in Ming woodblock-printed
books reveal that stands were in common use by Ming times for vases and
censers 9 and for so-called scholar's rocks, which the literati collected and
often displayed in their studies. 10
Probably introduced in the seventeenth century and inspired by the
Qing fascination with pyrotechnical displays of virtuosity, trompe I'oeil stands
imitating wooden ones had gained popularity by the early eighteenth cen-
tury, as implied by a Yongzheng-marked porcelain bowl with integrally fired
stand in the Palace Museum, Beijing, the bowl with a light blue glaze imi-
tating Jun ware and the stand with a dark purple brown glaze imitating
zitan wood. 11 In one group of Xuande-type bronze censers, each //-shaped

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