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A RARE AND INSCRIBED ARCHAISTIC GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE WINE VESSEL, JUE, QING DYNASTY

A RARE AND INSCRIBED ARCHAISTIC GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE WINE VESSEL, JUE, QING DYNASTY China, 18th century. Superbly cast, with a pair of short posts on the mouth rim dividing the elongated pouring mouth and an exaggerated lip, decorated around the exterior of the cylindrical receptacle with taotie-masks against a leiwen-ground and divided by vertical flanges, one side with a loop-handle emerging from an animal-head, all raised on three long tapered legs, decorated overall with characteristic gilt splashes. The base carved with a five-character seal script mark. Inscriptions: To the base, ‘Boshen zuo baoyi’ (Boshen made this precious vessel). Provenance: New York trade. Acquired from a noted private collection in the US. Condition: Very good condition with expected old wear and casting irregularities, the pointed tip of the mouth with a tiny crack. Weight: 900 g Dimensions: Height 23.4 cm The base is inscribed in archaic script with Boshen zuo baoyi, ‘Boshen made this precious yi’. Yi may be translated as a cup or libation vessel. It is interesting to note that not only the form and decoration were copied in reverence to archaism, but the inscription had been taken directly from characters inscribed on late Shang/early Zhou dynasty vessels. The name Boshen appears to be unrecorded. Bronze vessels of this type were valued by the literati class in China for their reverence to archaism, and those bearing an epigraphic inscription were considered even more precious. Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss in Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 1986, page 184, quote Ulrich Hausmann saying, “Archaic bronzes and their inscriptions, the subject of centuries of epigraphic and stylistic studies by literary men and artists, became inseparable; so much so that since that time scholars writing characters have seen at the back of their minds the image of ancient bronze vessels whose rubbings they had carefully studied. ...what could be more fitting than to embellish one's studio with subtle allusions to the magnificent past, or to furnish the ancestral altar with vessels expressing the continuation of their inheritance.” Literature comparison: A pair of gold-splashed jue bearing the same inscription as the present example was included in the exhibition The Minor Arts of China, Spink & Son, London, 1987, cat. no. 77. A further gold-splashed jue is illustrated in Egan Mews, 'Gold-splashed Bronzes in the collection of Mr. Randolph Berens', Connoisseur, November, 1915, p. 144. Auction result comparison: Type: Near identical Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 4 April 2012, lot 139 Price: HKD 524,000 or approx. EUR 77,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A gilt-splashed bronze censer, jue, signed Boshen, Qing dynasty, 18th century Expert remark: Note that this jue bears the same mark as the present lot and is of similar size (21 cm). This jue is also illustrated by Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1986, cat. no. 161. Auction result comparison: Type: Near identical Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3591 Price: HKD 600,000 or approx. EUR 89,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A rare gilt-splashed archaistic wine vessel, jue, late Ming dynasty, 17th century Expert remark: Note that this jue bears the same mark as the present lot and is of similar size (22 cm).

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A RARE AND INSCRIBED ARCHAISTIC GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE WINE VESSEL, JUE, QING DYNASTY

Estimate 4 000 - 8 000 EUR
Starting price 4 000 EUR

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For sale on Friday 28 Jun : 11:00 (CEST)
vienna, Austria
Galerie Zacke
+4315320452
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