The powerful form of this exceptional large bronze vase, created for the imperial court in the early 18th century, derives from hu vessels created in the Eastern Zhou dynasty, where there was a new approach to decoration stimulated by the development of new levels of ornamentation. See the elaborate dragon handles on an Spring and Autumn bronze hu vessel included in the exhibition This Life and the After-life, Gisele Croes, Maastricht, 1996, p. 82, and another, sold in our New York rooms, 21st/22nd September 2005, lot 151.
The high-relief decoration on the current vase is of superlative quality, a style that can only be found on two other early Qing bronze vases from the collects ion of Robert E. Kresko, illustrated in Philip K. Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes - The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert Kresko collects ions, St. Louis, 2008, cat. nos 21 and 33, where he expounds that the quatrelobe form is rare prior to the early Qing dynasty, but exists in Ming cloisonne enamel wares:
"Beginning in the early eighteenth century, there was a trend to decorate the sides of porcelain vessels with three or four mythical or auspicious animals in underglaze copper red or cobalt blue. This development must have influenced bronze decoration to a considerable degree, as is evident in this vase and in a tripod jar with bovine-head handles and relief decoration of mythical animals in the Kresko collects ion...".
The first of the Kresko examples, sold in these rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 3672, is of quatrefoil hu form with dragon head loop handles, the relief decoration of two pairs of mythical beasts (suanni and xiezhi), the second is of tripod form with ox decoration. Philip Hu convincingly argues that this distinct animal relief decoration relates to the insignia on rank badges at the Qing court.
The two beasts on the wider back and front of the vase could be mythical creatures known as suanni, which are akin to, and somet.mes s interchanged or mistaken for, Buddhist lion-dogs (fo shi or shizi). As for the two animals directly under the loop handles, the prominent horizontal scales seen on their chests may indicate that they are legendary single-horned beasts known as xiezhi. According to legend, a xiezhi is able to distinguish between right and wrong; it can also smell an evil or immoral person from a distance and then tear him or her to pieces. Because the beast is equipped with this special judicial ability, its image was adopted for the rank insignia badges of imperial censors (yu shi). These four mythical animals, as well as the dragon heads at the top of the loop handles, are very finely worked so that even the minute details of their anatomy, creatively imagined, help to impart a semblance of reality.
These two vases that Hu discusses, the only ones known other than the current example, are cast on the base with apocryphal marks, differing from the current vase, so skilfully cast in relief with the motif of an Imperial five-clawed dragon. The articulation of this dragon is in the style of early Ming dragons seen on Xuande porcelain, a design motif used in Yongzheng and Qianlong porcelain. For the prototype, see for instance, the Xuande blue and white dragon brushwasher in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: The World’s Great collects ions, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 94, and another sold in these rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 339. Beginning in the early eighteenth century, there was a trend to decorate the sides of porcelain vessels with three or four mythical or auspicious animals in underglaze copper red or cobalt blue. A group of porcelain bottle vases from the Kangxi period also shares decorative elements with the current vase. See the treatment of the mythical beasts vividly painted in underglaze-red on a Kangxi period bottle vase, sold in these rooms, 13th November 1990, lot 260.
