RARE VERSEUSE ARCHAÏSANT EN FORME D'UN CANARD EN BRONZE ET INCRUSTATIONS A L'OR ET A L'ARGENT

Fin de la Dynastie Ming/Debut de la Dynastie Qing, XVIIe/XVIIIe siècle

Footnotes

PROPERTY FROM AN ITALIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
意大利私人珍藏

明晚期/清早期 十七/十八世紀 銅錯金銀仿古寶鴨式執壺

This unusually shaped ewer is solidly cast of bronze, the surface finely decorated with inlays comprising fine sheets of silver and gold foil worked into the surface. The technique of gold and silver-inlay on metalware evolved in the Eastern Zhou period and became was perfected in the Western Han dynasty when the most luxurious bronze vessels were inlaid with decorated with intricate gold and silver-inlaid designs. With the rise of antiquarian studies in the Song dynasty, the discovery of ancient sites and artefacts, collections were formed, researched and documented in illustrated catalogues of antiquities such as the Kaogu tu (Illustrated Research on Archaeology) compiled in 1092 by Lu Dalin, and the Chongxiu Xuanhe bogu tulu (Revised Illustrated Catalogue of Antiquities in the Xuanhe Palace) commissioned by the Emperor Huizong in 1123 and compiled by Wang Fu. These illustrated catalogues which were not only reproduced in later periods but also also copied by later illustrated publications on antiquities, provided a rich source of inspiration for craftsmen of the Song and later periods who faithfully reproduced some vessel types down to the artificial green verdigris patina but also adapted archaic bronze shapes and designs creating unique designs such as the present duck-shaped ewer. The 1958 edition of the Chongxiu bogu tulu illustrates a similar bird-shaped pouring vessel, see Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, p.16, pl.3. A more closely related bird-shaped ewer similarly depicted with a handle, is illustrated in the catalogue of the archaic bronzes of the Qianlong emperor Xiqing gujian (Fig. 1).

Though rare, similar duck-shaped vessels with gold and silver-inlaid designs are known, compare a duck-ewer of this shape and design but without the handle, dated to the Song dynasty, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 203, pl.I-39, p.63. Another example dated to the late Ming dynasty, is illustrated in Michael Goedhuis, Chinese and Japanese Bronzes A.D. 1100-1900, New York, 1989, pl.8. A faithful copy of the duck-shaped vessel illustrated in the Xiqing gujian made in gilt-bronze and cloisonne enamel and bearing a Qianlong mark, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession number K1E000096). The closest example to the present gold and silver-inlaid duck-shaped ewer, with similar cast details and inlaid decorative elements, formerly in the collection of J.T. Tai & Co., was sold in Sotheby's New York, March 2011, lot 226, and again in Christie's Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 3309.