A bronze archaistic duck shaped vessel with silver inlay, Qing dynasty (1644-1912).
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In the shape of a duck standing on webbed feet, its beak transformed into a spout, a curved neck, its wings tucked into the sides, decorated with stylised scrolling designs, feathers, carrying a vase, the body adorned with scrolls, feathers and spirals with details picked out in silver inlay. Height 19 cm. Length 23 cm. Weight 2337 gram.
Wear.
Provenance
The private Collection of Nils Nessim (1916-1974), thence by descent.
Nils Nessim (1917-1974), was a Swedish businessman and carpet dealer, son of the Director and Carpet specialist Jean B Nessim (1887-1946). In 1942 he founded AB Nils Nessim in 1942, he expanded and in the 1960’s he founded Nils Nessim International and Nils Nessims Antiques. Nils were early schooled in the carpet business by his father, and went on many business trips to aquire carpets and goods for the stores. He travelled the world and built up an impressive collection of Antiques and Asian Works of Art alongside the carpet business. In 1959 he became the first westener to be allowed to export antiques from China. He is well known for his collection of Russian Easter Eggs, and at one point he is said to have had over 1000 of them.
Literature
Compare with other ewer of this type, an archaic bronze zhou fu zun, published in the Song dynasty catalogue of paintings in the Imperial Collection, Chongxiu xuanhe bogutu (Revised Illustrated Catalogue of Xuanhe Profoundly Learned Antiquity). This catalogue includes bronzes in the Imperial Court Collection dating from the Shang to the Tang dynasty. See two examples of the bronze prototype from the Spring and Autumn period, illustrated by Rong Geng, Shang zhou yiqi tongkao, vol.2, no.694, p.386.
Compare with a related but larger gold and silver-inlaid bronze duck-shaped vessel, Song dynasty, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 2003, pl.I-39, p.63; and another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by R.Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, no.3, p.17. Compare also with two related pieces dated Song Dynasty, one illustrated by M. Goedhuis in Chinese and Japanese Bronzes A.D.1100-1900, London, 1989,pl.79; another one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and illustrated in Chinese Decorative Arts, New York, 1997, p.8. See also a closely related cloisonné enamel duck-shaped vessel, Qianlong mark and period, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in The All Complete Qianlong: The Aesthetic Tastes of the Qing Emperor Gaozong, Taipei, 2013, p.199, no.II-3.9.
Compare with a larger example, late Ming to early Qing dynasty, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 June 2015, lot 3309; and another example, 18th century, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2010, lot 2720.