AN EXCEPTIONAL IMPERIAL CARVED BAMBOO-ROOT VASE, ZUN QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

of circular section, carved with a body rising to broad shoulders and surmounted with a waisted neck and a flared mouthrim, the neck collared with three thin raised fillets, above an archaistic scroll band above the shoulders, the body meticulously carved with band enclosing a pair of taotie masks, all above three further thin raised fillets bordering the splayed foot, the middle fillet interrupted by four raised rings, the bamboo of a warm golden-brown colour

Hotel des Ventes D'Argenteuil, Paris, 1996.

This vessel has been inspired by the archaic bronze zun and follows in the Ming bronze renaissance style of reinterpreting archaic forms, as seen in its rounded shoulders, slimmer form and variation of the taotie motif. The dark brown tone of the bamboo with its darker striations is a particularly suitable material for bronze simulations, as it resembles the patina that naturally develops on the surface of bronze vessels.

A bamboo zun of this style, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji. Zhu mu ya jiao qi [Complete collection of Chinese art. Bamboo, wood, ivory and rhino], vol. 11, Beijing, 1987, pl. 43. Compare also bamboo vases modelled in the form of archaic hu; such as two in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, one included in the Museum’s exhibition Through the Prism of the Past. Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. III-65, the other included in the exhibition Uncanny Ingenuity and Celestial Feats. The Carvings of Ming and Qing Dynasties. Bamboo, Wood and Fruitstone, Taipei, 2010, cat. no. 15; another from the collection of Dr. Ip Yee and illustrated in Chinese Bamboo Carving, Part I, Hong Kong, 1978, pl. 142. Taotie mask carving of near-identical style is also found on a smaller bamboo bottle from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace, Macau Museum of Art, Macau, 2005, p. 348, pl. 125.