Page 56 - CHRISTIE'S Marchant Nine Decades of Chinese Art 09/14/17
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MARCHANT: NINE DECADES IN CHINESE ART
715 A RARE PARCEL-GILT-BRONZE The double gourd is a very auspicious symbol, with a
DOUBLE-GOURD HANGING CENSER number of meanings. The gourd can be seen as a symbol
AND COVER of fertility, due to its numerous seeds. It was also hollowed
out and used as a storage vessel, in particular for medicine,
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY and thus became associated with the Daoist Immortal Li
Tieguai, who used it to hold the medicine with which he
The censer is formed as a double-gourd cast with a band of offered healing to the sick. Li Tieguai is often depicted with
lotus petals at the mouth rim of the upper section, and the his double gourd issuing wafts of smoke which represent
lower section is fanked by two Buddhist lions, each playing immortality, a particularly apt image to associate with the
with a brocade ball which supports the upright loop handle. present censer which would likewise have emitted smoky
The handle is cast with a pair of dragon heads confronting wisps when in use.
a pearl, and the openwork cover is cast with lotus blossoms
beneath a fower-head terminal. The lions, dragons and foral A very similar hanging double-gourd-shaped incense burner,
details are highlighted in gilt against the attractively patinated dated to the 16th-17th century, is illustrated by P. Moss,
bronze, and the base is cast with an apocryphal six-character The Second Bronze Age, Hong Kong, 1991, no. 53.
Xuande mark.
8 in. (20.2 cm.) high with handle raised 明十六/十七世紀 銅局部鎏金提梁葫蘆瓶
$50,000-70,000
PROVENANCE
Important private collection, France.
(mark)
(detail)
54
