A large Chinese bronze archaistic Hu vase.
Qing dynasty, late 18th to 19th century.
The bulbous body rising from a tall splayed foot into a waisted neck with flaring mouth and two loop handles issuing mythical beasts, cast in relief with bands of taotie masks and kui dragons against a leiwen ground. Cast bronze with cast and cold-worked decoration, damascened overlays of silver and gold.
Provenance:
Formerly in a private Belgian collection.
Ref:
Compare with another bronze Hu vessel in the Clague Collection, number 241, illustrated in China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900 (Robert D. Mowry, 1993), p. 194, no. 42.
Dimensions:
Height 40 cm, width with handles 36 cm, diameter 26 cm.
For more information on the topic of later Chinese bronzes, please refer to our blog post on this subject.
Inv. No: MW243
