Page 241 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

45, number 20; Palace Museum, Gugong bowuyuan 7. See The Joint Board of Directors of The National
cang ci xuanji, number 26. See the fish-shaped han- Palace Museum and the National Central Museum,
dles on a Longquan celadon mallet vase in Valenstein, compilers, Kuan Ware of the Southern Sung, Hong
A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, 106, number 100. Kong: Cafa Company, 1962, book 1, part 1, 82-83,
6. In the absence of identically shaped and certi- plate 26; Hasebe, So, 71, numbers 61, 62; Palace
fiably genuine Xuande bronzes for comparison, it Museum, Gugong bowuyuan cang ci xuanji, num-
might be noted, by analogy, that fifteenth-century bers 18, 19; Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Gold, Silver,
Longquan celadon vases sometimes have a squat and Porcelain: The Kempe Collection, New York:
body set on a narrow foot and surmounted by a Asia Society, 1971,107, number 111.
long, attenuated neck, resulting in a streamlined 8. See Mowry, Handbook, 67, 1979.146; Percival
form with an incongruously bulbous body, reminis- David Foundation, Imperial Taste, 43, number 18;
cent of, though less exaggerated than, the effect Palace Museum, Gugong bowuyuan cang ci xuanji,
seen in this censer. See Fujioka and Hasebe, M/n, number 26.
234, number 228; The Joint Board of Directors of 9. See Watt, Chinese Jades, 208-15, numbers 209-
The National Palace Museum and the National 13, 215-16.
Central Museum, compilers, Lung-ch'uan Ware of 10. See Ayers and Sato, Shin, 33, number 26;
the Sung Dynasty, Hong Kong: Cafa Company, 1962, Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming
40-41, number 7. The taste for such streamlined and Ch'ing Monochrome in the Percival David
forms continued into the seventeenth and eight- Foundation of Chinese Art, London: Percival David
eenth centuries, as witnessed by examples in Kangxi Foundation of Chinese Art, University of London, 1973,
and Yongzheng ceramics. See John Ayers and Sato 25, number 580; plate 4, number 580; and cover.
Masahiko, Shin (Qing), volume 15 in Sekai toji 11. See Goedhuis, Chinese and Japanese Bronzes,
zenshu, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 1983, 39, number 31. number 57.
7. See Xuande yiqi tupu (Illustrated Catalogue of 12. See Rawson, Chinese Bronzes, color plate 5,
Xuande Sacral Vessels) (1526), in Tao Xiang, com- number 5; Loehr, Ritual Vessels, 91, number 37;
piler, Xiyongxuan congshu, Beijing: Tao Xiang, 1930, Delbanco, Art from Ritual, 49, number 12; 69,
bingbian, volume 2, juan 13, 2 recto; juan 19, 4 recto. number 22.
8. Xiang Yuanbian, Xuanlu bolun, 245-49; Chang 13. See Jenyns and Watson, Chinese Art: The Minor
Xiang, Xuanlu gezhu, 251-57; Jenyns and Watson, Arts, 132-33, number 58.
Chinese Art: The Minor Arts, 87-88; Zhang Guangyuan, 14. Li Fangwu, Zhongguo yishujia zhenglue, juan
'Da Ming Xuande lu,' 10,13. 1, 7, verso; Jenyns and Watson, Chinese Art: The
9. As related by Zhang Guangyuan, 'Da Ming Minor Arts, 91; Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, 65;
Xuande lu,' 13; 15, figure 21. The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong com-
10. See National Palace Museum, compiler, Ming piler, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong:
Xuande ciqi tezhan mulu (Catalog of a Special Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 1986, 178,
Exhibition of Ming Porcelains of the Xuande Era), number 157. The last-named work illustrates a small,
Taipei: Guoli gugong bowuyuan, 1979. inlaid bronze water vessel with a carved mark on
11. See Zhang Guangyuan, 'Da Ming Xuande lu,' the base including the cyclical date xinchou, which
5-6, figures 1-8. the authors interpret to be 1541 or 1601, but which
might well be 1661, given Shisou's lack of mention
in writings by such late Ming authors as Wen
16 Zhenheng and Tu Long.
1. See Xuande yiqi tupu, volume 2, juan 12, 7; 15. Rose Kerr's intriguing suggestion, based on
juan 17, 11-12 (all pages recto). analogy to medieval European craft production
2. See Loehr, Ritual Vessels, 63, number 23; 89, practices, that 'Shi Sou' may well have been the
number 36; Delbanco, Art from Ritual, 81, number 28; trade mark adopted by entrepreneur(s) who co-
Hayashi, In Shu seidoki soran, plate volume, 137-49. ordinated the work of a number of outworkers'
3. See Hayashi, In Shu seidoki soran, plate vol- seems out of keeping with Chinese custom which,
ume, 145, number 81. until modern times, favored the individual or the
4. See The Joint Board of Directors of The National anonymous collective, but not the named collec-
Palace Museum and the National Central Museum tive. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, 65. Revealing as
compilers, Ju Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Hong they can be, cross-cultural investigations must be
Kong: Cafa Company, 1961, 36-39, plates 6-9. approached within a rigorously defined methodolog-
5. See The Joint Board of Directors of The National ical framework and the results of such investigations
Palace Museum and the National Central Museum must be confirmed by hard evidence.
compilers, Kuan Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Hong 16. In his visit to the Clague Collection on 7 June
Kong: Cafa Company, 1962, 47, plate 18. 1992, Yang Boda, Deputy Director Emeritus of the
6. See Loehr, Ritual Vessels, 131, number 57; 143- Palace Museum, Beijing, remarked on the oddity
45, numbers 63-64; 151, number 67; 175, number 80; of this combination. The combination of Shisou
Delbanco, Art from Ritual, 116, number 46; 133-41, mark and Zhengde mark mentioned by Gerard
numbers 54-58. Tsang and Hugh Moss has no more credibility than
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T H E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N