Page 36 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

ROBABLY INTENDED AS A FLOWER VASE, 1 this elegantly profiled
hexagonal vessel has a pear-shaped body set atop a short splayed
P hexagonal foot. Two hollow tubular appendages flank the slightly
flaring neck, affixed at the neck's point of narrowest width. Relief vertical
ridges at the corners emphasize the division of the vessel surface into six
facets; the rounded edges of the ridges on the mid-portion of the vessel,
which echo the contour of the gently swollen body, give way on the neck and
foot to squared edges that better harmonize with the vessel's more insis-
tently angular top and bottom. Thread-relief lines, spaced and configured
to create narrow undecorated bands, divide the vessel into five horizontal
registers, four on the vessel proper and one on the foot; intricate diaper
patterns adorn the resulting thirty rectangular panels, contrasting with
the unembellished vertical ridges and horizontal bands. From the top
down, the first register includes upward-pointing isosceles triangles with
curved sides, their interiors boasting a ruy/-head below and a comb pattern
above, the triangles nestled amidst stylized flower heads (of different types)
above and below; the second register displays diamond-shaped lozenges,
each with an abstract flower at its center and a single leiwen in each corner;
the tall third register features a pattern of small squares, each set on a corner
point and each exhibiting a swastika at its center; the fourth register displays
a pattern of tightly coiled leiwen, the pattern arranged so that the leiwen
rest on their corner points; the narrow fifth register (the foot) repeats the
design of the second register, as do the tubular appendages. The foot is hol-
low, its interior undecorated. A small section of the foot has been replaced,
as has the flat base, bits of silvery solder at its edges attesting to its recent
insertion. The original base was doubtless cast separately and inserted,
like that on the previous miniature vase [3].
Because of the appendages at the neck, archaistic vessels of this
type are often said to derive from the touhu, or pitch pot, a secular vessel
used as the target in an arrow-throwing game popular from antiquity
through the Qing dynasty [see 9]. Although bronze and ceramic vessels
with squat globular bodies and elongated cylindrical necks with tubular
appendages at their tops 2 do indeed derive from touhu vessels, vases of
the sort seen here with organically flowing profiles were derived from
ancient hu vessels, which during the Shang and Zhou dynasties were used
for storing wine. Hu vessels from the Zhou dynasty typically have loop
handles with free-turning rings [compare 1], but those from the Shang often
have tubular appendages on the neck, set a short distance below the mouth,
and are the clear, if distant, model for the Clague vase. 3

3 2 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E