A large gold-inlaid bronze 'taotie' vase, Qing dynasty

Acquired in Berlin in the late 1970s / early 1980s.

The grand fluted form and zoomorphic design of the present vase was derived from archaic zun and zhi vessels from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Compare a fanglei and jiao with taotie designs inlaid with gold, preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, exhibited in Gu se / Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 2003, cat nos III-07 and III-08.