LATE MING DYNASTY, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE LARGE PARCEL-GILT PEWTER BASIN
Late Ming dynasty, late 16th-early 17th century
The interior inscribed with two dragons contesting a flaming pearl above a carp leaping beside a gate inscribed with the characters yu men rising from waves below which are depicted various crustacea, all below eight auspicious emblems alternating with various flower sprigs on the flat petal-barbed rim with raised outer edge, all highlighted in gilding
18 5/8in. (47.3cm.) across, lucite stand

Provenance

Sotheby's, New York, 27 February 1981, lot 276.
Collection of Nancy and Benno Schmidt.

Lot Essay

As discussed by S. Handler in 'Ablutions and Washing Clean: The Chinese Washbasin and Stand,' Journal of The Classical Chinese Furniture Society, Autumn 1991, vol.7, no. 4, pp. 26-27, in wealthy households since the Ming dynasty, basins of this type were often used in conjunction with wood washbasin stands, mianpenjia. Such a stand is in The Gangolf Geis Collection of Fine Classical Chinese Furniture to be sold in these rooms 18 September, 2003, lot 12. A gilt-decorated basin of similar shape, size and date, but with different decoration, was included in the Roger Keverne catalogue, Summer Exhibition 2000, London, no. 25

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