Page 217 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

This pair of ewers are modeled after Tibetan prototypes and are known as duohumu, meaning ‘bucket of snow’. Ewers of this type
were originally used in lamaist monasteries for storing butter, milk or wine. Originally made of wood with metal bands, the humble
vessel was reinterpreted in various materials including cloisonné enamel, and thus transformed into a luxurious piece appropriate
for use at court.

A closely related ewer was included in the exhibition Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, Asia Society, New York, 1989,
cat. no. 159; another is illustrated in Dr. Gunhild Avitanile, Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Hannover, 1981, pl. 59; and a third in the
George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, was included in the exhibition Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels
from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, cat. no. 90. See also a closely related pair of
ewers sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 3104; and a further example sold in these rooms, 21st-22nd September
2005, lot 212.

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