A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL AND GILT-BRONZE ZHADOU MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY |

the vessel cast with a compressed globular form resting on a short splayed foot and flaring at the trumpet mouth, all supported on a gilt-bronze stepped base resting on three short legs, each modelled in the round as a lion, the bulbous body enamelled with lotus blooms borne on delicate leafy stems above a band of lappet leaves, the shoulder further adorned with three Qing dynasty gilt-bronze animal mask handles suspending loose rings, above a floral border skirting the foot, and below a frieze of four mythical beasts in pursuit of brocade balls, the inner neck with four mythical horses striding above tempestuous waves, the base incised with a vishravajra

Collection of Walter and Lucie Rosen, purchased in the 1920s-1940s.
Collection of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.

A number of Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel vessels was later embellished or adapted during the Qing dynasty. For a zhadou from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, bearing similar registers of design to the present lot, but supported on three later-added winged mythical beasts and applied with animal-mask handles to the shoulders, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 39. See also a zhadou of similar form in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, cat. no. 6. A zhadou in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris enamelled with the same design and dated to the mid-16th century was included in the exhibition Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, cat. no. 43. The design also appears on cloisonné enamel bowls of the same period, such as one illustrated in Sir Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1962, pl. 31B.