Page 182 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

HIS L A R G E AND IMPRESSIVE V A S E consists of a tall, splayed foot,
an ovoid body with rounded shoulders, and a flaring neck with vertical
T lip. The vertical footring is undecorated, but the splayed foot has
two ornamental registers with low-relief decoration, the lower one with
four descending lappets, with a stylized cicada at the center of each lappet,
and the upper one with two pairs of stylized, strapwork kui dragons set
against a leiwen ground. Two raised bowstring lines bordering a narrow
undecorated band distinguish the body from the foot. The body displays
three ornamental registers, the registers separated by plain bands bordered
by parallel relief lines. Highly formalized and bilaterally symmetrical, a low-
relief pattern comprising two pairs of confronting kui dragons placed against
leiwen enlivens the middle register, a single square leiwen spiral set on a
corner marking the join of the two dragons of each pair. Each subsidiary
register has two pairs of kui dragons against a leiwen ground.
Like those of the Kangxi reign, marked bronzes of the much shorter
Yongzheng era are extremely rare, making this handsome vase an important
document in charting the evolution of bronze style during the eighteenth
century. A recently published d/ng-shaped censer has a mark dated to the
first year of the Yongzheng reign (1723); 1 as might be expected, its calli-
graphic style derives from that of the preceding Kangxi period though it
is distinguishable from it. The six-character mark on the present vase, by
contrast, shows the fully developed Yongzheng style, which is based on
characters in woodblock-printed books rather than on the calligraphy of
brush-written texts. The mark is identical in style to those on imperial porce-
lains of the day, confirming the authenticity of the vessel.
The two characters on the lip reading Jing zhi (Respectfully made)
indicate that the vase was a presentation piece, probably for a temple.
This vase and a probable mate would likely have been used with a large
ding-shaped censer 2 as a three-piece altar set or, with the addition of two
candlesticks, as a five-piece set [38]. Large temple vases probably appeared
during the late Song period and were established by the Yuan dynasty, as
illustrated by the noted pair of blue-and-white porcelain vases in the Percival
David Foundation, London, 3 dated by inscription to 1351 and presented
with an incense burner by Zhang Wenjin 'as a prayer for the protection of
the whole family and for the peace and prosperity of his descendants.' 4
The Clague vase was no doubt given in the same spirit.
Although its tripartite division might suggest that it derives solely
from Shang-dynasty ritual bronze zun vessels, the Clague vase actually
traces its lineage through a series of related blue-and-white vases to vessels

1 7 8 10 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E