Page 50 - CHRISTIE'S Marchant Nine Decades of Chinese Art 09/14/17
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MARCHANT: NINE DECADES IN CHINESE ART
710
710 A PAIR OF BRONZE DUCK-FORM 711 A LARGE BRONZE TRIPOD CENSER AND
CENSERS AND COVERS COVER
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY 18TH CENTURY
Each duck is cast standing on one leg on a domed The censer is supported on three elephant heads, their curved trunks
forming the legs, and the body of the censer is cast in relief with leafy
lotus leaf, with its head turned to one side and lotus scrolls and fanked by a pair of handles in the form of raised
elephant trunks. The openwork cover is decorated with lotus blooms
grasping in its beak three lotus stems, one of which borne on leafy tendrils surrounding the recumbent elephant-form
fnial which is inlaid with colored beads and supports a bowl flled
bears the cover formed as a lotus leaf supporting with precious objects on its back.
16Ω in. (42 cm.) high
an openwork fower. The bodies are incised with
$8,000-12,000
feather details and the patina is of an irregular
PROVENANCE
dark tone.
Private collection, France.
8 in. (20.3 cm.) high (2)
The present censer is loosely based on the shape of archaic ritual
$4,000-6,000 vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Although the overall
outlines of the archaic models were retained, the craftsmen liberally
PROVENANCE interpreted original decorative motifs incorporating them with
Ming and Qing-inspired designs.
Private collection, France, acquired in Paris, 1979.
The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of imperial
明十六/十七世紀 銅鴨熏一對 bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced
back at least as far as the Xuande reign (1426 -1435). See, for
example, the censer, bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark,
on which the elephant-heads balance on their rolled trunks is in
the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated
in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the
Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, p. 199, no. 54.
清十八世紀 銅蓮紋象足爐
48
