A rare and large bronze handled vase, Yuan dynasty | 元 銅瑞獸耳活環大瓶

Compare a very similar Yuan dynasty bronze vase of related form, although smaller in size, decorated with taotie masks and waves around the neck and foot, respectively, from the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum's exhibition Age of the Great Khan. Pluralism in Chinese Art and Culture under the Mongols, Taipei, 2001, cat. no. IV-4, where the author notes that bronze vases of this type were inspired by archaic ritual bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasty, and often served a decorative function or as ritual vessels on an altar table during the Yuan dynasty. The form of the present vase continued to be popular during the Ming dynasty. See a bronze altar vase of a related form but absent of decoration, dated by inscription to the 7th year of Hongzhi, corresponding to 1494, in the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, published in Philip K. Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes. The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert E. Kresko Collection, Saint Louis, 2008, no. 4.