WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

57
A cloisonné enamel vase
17th century
Height: 12K in, 32.1 cm
after an archaic bronze fanghu, with a
square section, a spreading foot, wellrounded
sides and a waisted neck; the
shoulders are applied with two gilt-bronze
lion-mask handles suspending loose rings.
The body is decorated with rabbits to one
face, a peacock and another bird to the
second, and another peacock to the third,
all these amid flowers and rocks, and with
a crane in a lotus pond to the fourth. The
neck is decorated with a frieze of upright
leaves against scrolling flowers beneath
pendent cloud scrolls around the rim, the
shoulder with scrolling lotus, and the lower
part of the body with scattered blooms on
a ground of ruyi-shaped cloisons, all in
coloured enamels on a turquoise ground
and separated by narrow friezes of cloud
and leaf designs on lapis-blue grounds.
The foot is decorated with flying horses
(haima) sporting amid waves. The rims and
edges are gilt.
For similar examples, see Avitabile, Die
Ware aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische
und japanische Cloisonné- und Champleve-
Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, no. 40, p. 87;
Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné, The
Pierre Uldry Collection, no. 158; Brown,
Chinese Cloisonné: The Clague Collection,
pl. 25; Chen, Enamel Ware in the Ming and
Ch’ing Dynasties, no. 22, pp. 90–1, in the
collection of the National Palace Museum,
Taipei; Garner, Chinese and Japanese
Cloisonné Enamels, pl. 53; and Zhongguo
Meishu Fenlei Quanji: Zhongguo Jinyin
Boli Falangqi Quanji, Vol. 5, no. 190,
p. 161, in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing.
58
ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008 75
A cloisonné enamel censer
Ming dynasty, 16th century
Diameter: 5N in, 14.6 cm
standing on three gilt cabriole legs, the
circular-section vessel rises steeply from
a flat base and flares towards the rim;
two gilt-bronze lion masks are set on
the shoulder. The vessel is decorated in
coloured enamels on a turquoise ground
with six bold scrolling lotus to the sides,
four lotus to the base and a scrolling floral
band to the inner rim.
For similar examples, see Avitabile, Die
Ware aus dem Teufelsland: Chinesische
und japanische Cloisonné- und Champleve-
Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, no. 16, pp. 60–1;
Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné, The
Pierre Uldry Collection, nos. 116 and 117;
and Lin, Censers, Incense Burners and
Hand Warmers: Wellington Wang
Collection, no. 118, p. 148.