Page 91 - Bonhams Chinese and Himalayan Paintings June 2016

8160 For an example of a piece constructed of a similar medium but for the
A GILT BRONZE FOOTED CENSER European market, see the early 18th century Sawasa Ware shakudo
18th/19th century and gilt copper coffee urn offered as lot 36 in Christie’s digital sale of
Of likely Japanese manufacture, the reticulated convex lid and 8-19 December 2014, Japanese art at the English Court. As pointed
lion dog finial fitted to the waisted neck surmounting the tapered out there, though sometimes referred to as ‘Tonkin ware,’ vessels of
rectangular shakudo (Ch: chitong) body supporting opposing flared this type are more accurately referred to as ‘Sawasa Ware’-- from
handles and adorned in four pounced gilt ground reserves of lion the Dutch term ‘Saussa’ for Japanese shakudo. See Rijksmuseum
dogs frolicking amid four different seasonal flowering branches Amsterdam, Sawasa Japanese xport Art in Black and old 1650
separated by vertical flanges, the entire edifice supported by 1800, (Amsterdam, 1998). The academic consensus now appears to
curving feet. be that pieces of this type were manufactured with Dutch influence
7 3/4in (19.6cm) width o er handles and exported via the island of Deshima outside of Nagasaki, though
9 1/4in (23.5cm) high possibly made by Chinese artisans.

$20,000 - 30,000 For another example of this material made for the Chinese market, see
the early 18th century Sawasa ware snuff box offered as lot 6 in the
十八或十九世紀 鎏金銅花 紋四 Speelman Collection of Chinese Imperial Tribute Snuff Boxes in our
Hong Kong sale 21607 of 24 November 2013. A fascinating artifact
emphasizing the truly international flow of capital in the 18th century,
that box even suggested influences from the settlement of Batavia in
Dutch Indonesia. See as well the 18th century brush washer in the
collection of the Musée Cernuschi, Michel Maucuer, Bronzes de la
Chine impériale des Song aux Qing (Paris, 2013) no. 65, p. 119. The
Cernuschi bronze was cast in a classically archaistic form of a jue wine
cup, possibly meant, like the present lot, to appeal to more traditional
literati tastes.

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