A Pair of Large Bronze 'Tree Trunk' Vases Qing Dynasty, 17th Century

cast in a symmetrical manner, each hollowed out and shaped as a gnarled tree trunk issuing thin twigs bearing prunus blossoms, the knotty surface and lenticels naturalistically depicted, all above a reticulated base cast with stylised ruyi-shaped roots, the bronze patinated to an attractive chocolate-brown colour

The naturalistic form of these large bronze vases is reminiscent of ceramic art from the southeastern manufacturing centres of Yixing and Dehua. For an example of an Yixing brushpot in the Palace Museum, Beijing, decorated with similarly rendered gnarled branches, with the natural grain and crevices in the trunk vividly depicted, see Yixing Zisha Wares in the Palace Museum, Beijing, 2009, pg.190, pl.108.

For closely related decoration on jade, see a white jade teapot intricately worked in high relief as a prunus tree trunk, sold in these rooms, 25^th April 2004, lot 52. Compare also two jade vases in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo yuqi quanji, vol.6, Shijiazhuang, 1993, pls. 237 and 238.