Page 126 - Sotheby's May 10th 2017 London Important Chinese Art
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A VERY RARE BRONZE MOUNTED BLUE Notable for its dynamic dragon motif on a raised cartouche,
AND WHITE EWER which adds a three-dimensionality to the design, this ewer
QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD re ects the aesthetic of the eighteenth century as dictated by
the emperor. From the Yongzheng period, dynamic designs
the attened pear-shaped body rising from a short spreading of front-facing dragons experienced a surge in popularity
foot to a narrow neck, set with a tall curved spout connected and were one of the greatly favoured motifs of the Qianlong
to the neck by a lingzhi-shaped strut, freely painted around Emperor due to its association with imperial power.
the body in underglaze blue with a dense stylised pattern of
scrolling oral blooms and curling foliage, centred on the front In both form and design, this piece also embodies the Qing
and back by a tear-drop shaped panel of an ascending front- emperors’ desire to celebrate and honour China’s glorious past
view ve-clawed dragon writhing among ames and clouds, by taking inspiration from celebrated wares. The deliberate
all between a keyfret border and continuous petal lappets at application of cobalt blue to create a dappled ‘heaping and
the neck and a ‘classic’ scroll border at the foot, the metal- piling’ e ect of the design references the stippled early-
mounted high domed cover inscribed with Arabic inscriptions
attached to an arched strap handle set opposite the spout, fteenth century blue-and-white porcelain. Furthermore, in
surmounted with a green hard stone nial its slightly attened form with raised cartouche, it draws from
36.8 cm, 14½ in. Ming dynasty prototypes which in turn derived from Middle
Eastern metal examples.
PROVENANCE
Ewers of this type are rare and only a small number of related
Christie’s London, 12th July 2005, lot 169. examples are known; see one with its original porcelain handle
and cover, in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim published in
£ 100,000-150,000 Ulrich Wiesner, Chinesisches Porzellan, Mainz am Rhein, 1981,
HK$ 965,000-1,450,000 US$ 125,000-187,000 pl. 70; and a pair sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st May 2001,
lot 537. Compare also a ewer of this type, but now lacking its
2005 7 12 169 handle, from the Ottoman Royal collection, in the Topkapi
Saray Museum, Istanbul, published in Regina Krahl, Chinese
Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, London,
1986, vol. 3, pl. 2566.
The intricately decorated metal mounts on this piece, the
swelling forms of which complement the shape of the vessel,
suggests it may once have belonged in a Middle Eastern
collection.
124 SOTHEBY’S
