Page 259 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

6. Rosenfield and ten Grotenhuis, Journey of the 57
Three Jewels, 175, number 52.
7. See Ho and others, Eight Dynasties of Chinese 1. According to Werner, the popular tradition
Painting, 84, number 66. was inspired by a line in the text of Sanqin ji
8. See Oriental Ceramic Society, Chinese Ivories, stating, 'The fish from the rivers and seas gather
53, figure 15; 54-62, numbers 17-37; Donnelly, Blanc de together below Lung Men [Longmen]. Those who
Chine, plates 71 a, 72 a and c, 75, 79b, 81, 82, 84, 85 a-c. can pass on upstream turn into dragons, while
9. See Ho and others, Eight Dynasties of Chinese those who cannot, bump their heads and bruise
Painting, 258-59, number 202. their cheeks.' Werner, A Dictionary of Chinese
10. Mowry, 'Catalogue' in Li and Watt, The Chinese Mythology, 287.
Scholar's Studio, 175, number 59. See Claudia 2. See Arts Council of Great Britain, Chinese
Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, Heritage of the Brush: The Jade Throughout the Ages, 128, number 421.
Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection of Chinese
Painting, Phoenix AZ: Phoenix Art Museum, 122, 58
number 44c.
11. See Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, plate 82a. 1. Published: Sothebys London, 30 October 1987,
Shisou-marked sculptures and Dehua porcelain sale number 3031, lot 413.
figurines often show strong similarities, though 2. ChaiandChai, Li Chi: Book of Rites, volume 1,384.
the nature of the relationship remains unknown, as 3. For more information on the qilin, see Williams,
does the direction of influence, if, indeed, one Outline of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs, 409-
group influenced the other. One Shisou-type 411 (Unicorn).
bronze sculpture of a standing Guanyin bears an 4. Xuande yiqi tupu, volume 1, juan 3, 6 recto
inlaid mark of He Chaozong, a Dehua potter well and verso; volume 2, juan 11, 3-4 recto and verso
known for his molded porcelain figurines; whether for both pages. The texts record that the lion and
the mark is genuine or apocryphal, whether He jiaoduan were fitted with octagonal stands of
Chaozong the porcelain sculptor and He Chaozong xiangmu and zitan woods, respectively. With the
the purported bronze sculptor are the same per- reliance of Xuande bronze censers on Song ceram-
son or are two different people, whether the ics, it is also possible that such early Ming animal-
mark, if genuine, appears as a maker's mark or as shaped censers could have been inspired by the
a tribute honoring a He Chaozong porcelain covers of Song ceramic censers which sometimes
figurine replicated in bronze, all are questions that take the form of lions, ducks, and other animals;
await study and resolution. See Goedhuis, Chinese for examples, see Hasebe, So, 46-47, numbers 38-
and Japanese Bronzes, number 7. 39; Pearlstein and Ulak, Asian Art in The Art Insti-
tute of Chicago, 60; Gyllensvard, Chinese Gold,
Silver and Porcelain, 97, number 90.
56 5. For a Ming jade example, see Yang Boda,
1. A number of small casting flaws were expertly Zhongguo meishu quanji: Yuqi, 170, number 294.
corrected during manufacture by excising the Qilin and other animal-shaped censers may have
defective areas and filling them with new bronze. been categorized as xunlu rather than xianglu. The
Such repairs are most visible in the smooth areas - character xun (fragrant or perfume) implies sensu-
around the lips of the larger fish, for example, and ous pleasure and carries hedonistic, even erotic,
on the face of the smaller one. Well finished, the overtones. Xunlu, clearly censers not for religious
fills are square or rectangular in form and differ use, were used in rooms of the house other than
subtly in color from the bronze matrix into which the studio where scholars would have used either
they are set. archaic bronzes or censers inspired by them that
2. For information on the fish and its symbolism, were part of matched sets.
see Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and 6. See Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong,
Art Motifs, 181-84. Arts from the Scholar's Studio, 241, number 232;
3. Zhou Lili, 'Ciqi bajixiangwen xintan,' 312-32. Sothebys Hong Kong, 15 May 1990, bt 365; Sothebys
4. See Arts Council of Great Britain, Chinese New York, 1 December 1992, sale number 6370, lot 203.
Jade Throughout the Ages, 128, number 420. 7. See Sothebys Hong Kong, 15 May 1990, lot 352.
5. See Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, 160, 8. See Ip Yee and Laurence C.S. Tam, Chinese
number 142; Percival David Foundation, Imperial Bamboo Carving, Hong Kong: The Urban Council
Taste, 18, number 1; 19, figures 1-3. and the Hong Kong Museum of Art, volume 1,
6. See Mowry, 'Chinese Ceramics' in Munger 1978, 178, plate 26.
and others, The Forsyth Wickes Collection in the 9. James Roberts, a conservator of arts and antiqui-
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 293, number 265. ties, examined this censer in March 1988; he noted
7. See Li Yihua, Gugong zhencang Kang Yong the following in his condition report, dated 12 March
Qian ciqi tulu, 312, number 141. 1988: 'Manufacture: The tail was cast separately; it
is attached to the body in two places with copper

T H E R O B E R T H . C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N