Page 173 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

silver was just beginning its ascent to popularity in the early fifteenth
century and might also have played a role in the creation of such abstract
decoration, either directly inspiring those who designed the bronzes or indi-
rectly molding taste to appreciate objects sprinkled with gold and silver. 7
The varied sizes of its gold splashes distinguish the Clague vase
from its Xuande models. Although the paucity of genuine Xuande bronzes
renders a precise description of their appearance impossible, illustrations
in the 1526 edition of Xuande yiqi tupu show those with gold-splashed
decoration, called shenjin style, with their gold evenly distributed over the
vessel surface in a pattern of small dots and flecks. 8 In addition, Xuande
yiqi tupu and other early sources term the gold and silver splashes dian, or
dots, and compare them to raindrops and snowflakes, 9 further indicating
that the splashes must have been small and presumably evenly dispersed.
With their varied sizes and patterned arrangement, the gold splashes on
the Clague vase differ from those on Xuande bronzes but resemble designs
on a rare variety of Tang sancai ware that has as its only ornament splashes
of colored glaze, often blue, set against an otherwise plain white ground. 10
Rarely remarked upon by scholars and critics, early Qing experiments
with archaism extended to the use of Tang ceramics as models. The Kangxi
period saw the introduction of a variegated green, yellow, aubergine, and
11
white glaze, often called egg-and-spinach glaze in English, that is believed
to have been inspired by Tang sancai, for example, whereas Yongzheng
period witnessed the production of vessels in such Tang shapes as double-
fish vases 12 [see discussion, 56] and dragon-handled amphorae. 13 Probably
considered rustic or even crude during the Ming, Tang ceramics held at least
some appeal as sources of inspiration during the Kangxi and Yongzheng eras,
as potters and bronze casters strove to expand their repertoires to meet the
demands of an increasingly sophisticated, and sometimes jaded, clientele.
This vase was integrally cast, except for its flat base described above.
The mark in the center of the base was cold worked with hammer and
chisel, as indicated by the slightly irregular edges of the cartouche and by
the chatter marks on the straight vertical walls of the characters. The gold
splashes were doubtless applied through the standard mercury-amalgam
method, though the process may well have involved several stages. 14

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 6 9