A CHINESE GOLD-SPLASHED BRONZE TWO-HANDLED 'CHILONG' BOWL

A CHINESE GOLD-SPLASHED BRONZE TWO-HANDLED 'CHILONG' BOWL
17TH CENTURY

Raised on a straight foot to a flared rim, flanked by a pair of sinuous chilong with bifurcated tails forming the loop handles, the exterior with a brown patina decorated with irregular gold splashes, the base with a six-character Xuande mark within a recessed rectangle, 1.14kg, 21.5cm.

Provenance: Hinton Daniell Stewart (1835-1926) of Strathgarry, Perthshire, founder of the firm of Stewart Thompson and Sons (Manchester Cotton Merchants), and thence by descent.

The origin of gold-splashed decorations on Chinese bronzes remains uncertain. G Tsang and H Moss, in their book Arts from the Scholar's Studio, p.184, suggest that this decorative technique may have gained popularity due to the influence of Xuande bronzes from the Ming dynasty, where the gold splashes resulted from the vessel's uneven surface patination.

十七世紀 灑金銅雙螭龍耳碗
來源：英國蘇格蘭佩斯郡斯特拉斯加里， Hinton Daniell Stewart（1835-1926）收藏，Hinton是曼徹斯特棉業公司Stewart Thompson的創始人，之後由其後人繼承。