Qing dynasty, late 18th to 19th century.
The bulbous body rising from a tall splayed foot into a waisted neck with flaring mouth and two loop handles issuing mythical beasts, cast in relief with bands of taotie masks and kui dragons against a leiwen ground. Cast bronze with cast and cold-worked decoration, damascened overlays of silver and gold.
Provenance:
Formerly in a private Belgian collection.
Ref:
Compare with another bronze Hu vessel in the Clague Collection, number 241, illustrated in China's Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900 (Robert D. Mowry, 1993), p. 194, no. 42.
Dimensions:
Height 40 cm, width with handles 36 cm, diameter 26 cm.
Condition:
Good condition with a nice patina, tiny hole to the bottom and a small piece of the mythical beasts horn-end possibly chipped off but this could also be a casting flaw.
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Inv. No: MW243