明末 銅錯金銀饕餮紋提梁蓋壼

of archaistic you form, sturdily cast with a squat pear-shaped body rising from a splayed foot to a waisted neck, the lower neck flanked by a swing handle adorned with a mythical beast mask on each side, the body decorated in relief and boldly accentuated with gold and silver inlays with a pair of taotie masks against a leiwen ground, interrupted by raised flanges, the neck divided into two main registers, each rendered with stylised mythical beasts soaring against a leiwen ground, the upper register with raised flanges dividing the beasts and the lower with mythical beast masks, the splayed foot similarly decorated with flanges and stylised mythical beasts, the slightly domed cover similarly modelled with raised flanges and mythical beasts against a leiwen ground surrounding a flared finial

傳英國私人收藏

For a closely related gold and silver inlaid vessel of you form in the British Museum attributed to the 18th century, see Jessica Rawson ed., The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, fig. 48. See also a gold and silver inlaid vessel of gui form from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann, sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3350.