Until 31st Dec, 2025
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A GOLD-SPLASHED FACETED DOUBLE-GOURD VASE, 17TH-18TH CENTURY
Lot 381 - FAS1025
China. Finely cast in a waisted double-gourd form, supported on a straight circular foot. The body is worked in a faceted, honeycomb-like pattern, embellished with irregular gold-splashed abstract motifs, and rises to a waisted neck that flares into a trumpet mouth.
The base cast with an apocryphal six-character mark da Ming Xuande nianzhi within a rectangular reserve.
Expert’s note: Complex polygonal bronzes—faceted, octagonal, or multi-tiered—emerged in the late Ming to early Qing revivalist wave, when foundries pushed beyond simple censers into architectonic profiles requiring sectional molds and precise core-setting. Many bear apocryphal Xuande marks, used not as literal dates but as quality seals evoking 15th-century standards. Known examples include rectangular, faceted, and ribbed censers; hexa- or octagonal gu-form vases; and complex gold-splashed vessels, all generally attributed to the 17th–18th centuries.
Provenance: Danish trade. By repute acquired from an estate in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and casting irregularities. Scattered small dings, light surface scratches, and minute nicks.
Weight: 725.4 g
Dimensions: Height 20.2 cm
The double gourd is an auspicious symbol, with a number of meanings. The gourd can be seen as a symbol of fertility, due to its numerous seeds. It was also hollowed out and used as a storage vessel, in particular for medicine, and thus became associated with the Daoist Immortal Li Tieguai, who used it to hold the medicine with which he offered healing to the sick.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s Paris, 11 December 2024, lot 157
Price: EUR 8,820 or approx. EUR 9,000 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A gold-splashed faceted censer, China, 17th-18th century, apocryphal Xuande mark
Expert remark: Compare the related manner of casting, faceted form, gold-splashed decoration, and apocryphal Xuande reign mark. Note the closely related size (19.2 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Zacke, Vienna, 16 October 2021, lot 351
Price: EUR 4,298 or approx. EUR 5,300 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A bronze lobed double-gourd-form vase, Kangxi period
Expert remark: Compare the related manner of casting, double-gourd form and apocryphal Xuande reign mark. Note the closely related size (20.7 cm).
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