Page 59 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

The decorative style of touhu vessels varies with the period of manu-
facture, the only requisites being the long neck and the appendages, or
ears, near the mouth; most such vessels have but two ears, though some,
like the Clague example, have four. In most cases, the appendages are
aligned vertically with the neck, but in a few rare cases they are set diag-
onally, at a forty five degree angle to the neck. The large size of the base
on this vessel no doubt reflects an attempt to anchor the vessel (lest it be
knocked over during a game of arrow pitching) as much as it reflects the
Ming taste for tall, stepped bases.
The style of this touhu is very much that of the late Ming period. The
segmentation of the vessel surface into numerous discrete compartments,
here accentuated by ridges and flanges, is a late Ming characteristic, as is
the tendency to establish a rule of form, then break it; here, for instance,
the chi dragons playfully violate the otherwise strict bilateral symmetry of
the overall design. 10 In addition, high-relief decoration first came into promi-
nence during the late Ming period, as did the applique and cold-working
techniques of decoration that were used to create the relief dragons on
this touhu. Sometimes presented in pairs, playful, sinewy chi dragons with
long snouts, bulging eyes, and curling tails were a favorite during the late
Ming period, occurring both as decoration on vessels 11 and independently
12
as brushrests [see 49]. Rose Kerr has noted that long-necked, garlic-headed
bottles with applique dragons were produced in white porcelain (so-called
blanc-de-Chine ware) at the Dehua kilns in Fujian province from 1640 to
1680, a dating that is consistent with the late Ming attribution proposed
for the Clague touhu.
The Clague touhu was cast as several separate pieces that were
later joined together to form the finished vessel. The long neck was cast as
a discrete unit, for example, and fitted into the globular body, as indicated
by the lip at its base that projects downward into the body. Joined to the
neck with a bit of applied molten metal, the four tubular appendages
were also cast separately. The relief chi dragons encircling the neck were
applied after the neck had been cast and the surrounding surfaces were
carefully burnished to remove any trace of the applied bonding metal that
might interrupt the design. Such finishing details as the dragons' claws
and the linear designs on their tails were cold worked after application, a
new technique of decoration. The taotie masks, kui dragons, and diaper
patterns were integrally cast with their respective vessel parts, in the manner
of Song, Yuan, and early Ming bronze vessels.

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 5 5