拍品描述:来源 蓝理捷, 纽约, 编号4885 Vases of this shape, known as ambrosia vases, were often shown in Buddhist images and sculpture carried by the bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara). They were thought to contain the healing elixir that the bodhisattva could pour out for mortals seeking salvation. A bronze vase of very similar form in the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo, is illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, no. 330, where it is dated Sui-Tang dynasty. Another similar bronze vase in the Tokyo National Museum is illustrated in Chūgoku no kyōdō: rokuro hiki no seidōki (Tin-Bronze of China: Bronzes of the Potter’s Wheel), Osaka, 1999, p. 32, no. 56. See, also, the Tang bronze vase of very similar form in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, illustrated by R. Jacobsen in Appreciating China – Gifts from Ruth and Bruce Dayton, Minneapolis, 2002, no. 56, no. 24.