Page 205 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art NYC September 2023

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A RARE AND LARGE BRONZE HANDLED VASE 元 銅瑞獸耳活環大瓶 PROPERTY FROM THE MACLEAN COLLECTION 明天啟丙寅年（1626年） 銅交龍鈕鐘
YUAN DYNASTY A LARGE INSCRIBED BRONZE TEMPLE BELL 銘文：
Height 20⅛ in., 51 cm 來源 DATED TIANQI BINGYIN YEAR, 天啟丙寅年孟秋吉日旦 上海縣二十保龍王廟弟子陸
1998年得於紐約 CORRESPONDING TO 1626
PROVENANCE 紐約佳士得2009年3月19日，編號542 子清置
Acquired in New York, 1998. cast around the lower body with two inscriptions reading 皇圖永固 帝道遐昌 道日增輝 法輪常轉
Tianqi bingyin nian mengqiu jiri dan (on the first day of the
Christie’s New York, 19th March 2009, lot 542.
seventh month of the bingyin year of Tianqi) and Shanghai 來源
Compare a very similar Yuan dynasty bronze vase of related xian ershi baolongwangmiao dizi Lu Ziqing zhi (disciple Lu 紐約佳士得1998年9月16日，編號263
form, although smaller in size, decorated with taotie masks Ziqing commissioned [this bell] for the Dragon King Temples
and waves around the neck and foot, respectively, from the at the twentieth bao in the Shanghai county)
collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included Height 14⅞ in., 38 cm
in the Museum’s exhibition Age of the Great Khan. Pluralism
in Chinese Art and Culture under the Mongols, Taipei, 2001, PROVENANCE
cat. no. IV-4, where the author notes that bronze vases of Christie’s New York, 16th September 1998, lot 263.
this type were inspired by archaic ritual bronzes from the
Shang and Zhou dynasty, and often served a decorative $ 7,000-10,000
function or as ritual vessels on an altar table during the
Yuan dynasty. The form of the present vase continued to be
popular during the Ming dynasty. See a bronze altar vase of
a related form but absent of decoration, dated by inscription
to the 7th year of Hongzhi, corresponding to 1494, in the
Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, published in Philip K.
Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes. The Saint Louis Art Museum and
Robert E. Kresko Collection, Saint Louis, 2008, no. 4.

$ 12,000-15,000

406 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11275 407