Page 171 - Sotheby's NYC September 21 2022 Important Chinese Art

338

A LARGE GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE CENSER See a closely related censer, attributed to the late Ming
LATE MING DYNASTY dynasty, in the collection of Hong Kong Museum of Art,
Hong Kong, illustrated in Hilda Mak and Amber Chan,
the base with an apocryphal Xuande four-character mark ‘#popcolours: The Aesthetics of Hues in Antiquities from
within a recessed rectangle the HKMoA Collection’, Arts of Asia, Spring 2022, fig. 21.
Width 12¼ in., 31 cm
Compare a smaller example, decorated with a wide irregular
gilt-splashed band across the body, sold at Christie’s Hong
PROVENANCE Kong, 29th May 2006, lot 1515. See another gilt-splashed
American Private Collection, acquired in the late 19th century. bronze censer, of different form but with a similar mark, sold
in these rooms, 15th-16th September 2015, lot 227.
While gold-splashed bronze censers are found in important
collections worldwide, it is rare to find examples of such
large size. This censer is impressive for its size and its $ 50,000-70,000
exceptionally rich gilding, suggesting that it was made,
possibly on commission, by the court or a high ranking 明末 銅灑金魚耳大爐
official with no expense spared.
《宣德年製》仿款
The origin of gold-splashed decoration remains a source of
speculation. Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss in Arts from the 來源
Scholar’s Studio, Hong Kong, 1986, p. 184, mention that the
popularity of this surface decoration was possibly fostered by 美國私人收藏，得於19世紀末
Xuande bronzes of the Ming dynasty where the appearance
of gilt-splashes was caused by the uneven surface patination
of the vessel. Some scholars have linked gilt-splashed
decoration on bronzes to qingbai and Longquan wares of
the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. In China’s Renaissance
in Bronze, Phoenix, 1993, p. 169, Robert Mowry mentions
the appearance of fine paper enlivened with flecks of gold
and silver from the early 15th century and suggests that this
‘might have also played a role in the creation of such abstract
decoration, either directly inspiring those who designed the
bronzes or indirectly molding taste to appreciate objects
sprinkled with gold and silver’. Furthermore, R. Soame Jenyns
and William Watson in Chinese Art. The Minor Arts II, London,
1963, p. 166, illustrate a bronze double vase with gold inlay in
the form of splashes, pl. 50, which the authors describe as
‘decorated with elaborately simulated patches of apparent
corrosion, the rough projecting parts consisting of pure gold,
resembling un-worked nuggets and grains inserted into the
bronze’.

168 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11074 169