Page 87 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

These opulently decorated covered incense burner, modelled in Compare with a similar incense burner, from a painted enamel alter
the form of archaic bronze ding vessels, would have likely been set with interlocking lotus design, Qianlong mark and of the period,
commissioned by the Imperial Court from workshops at Guangzhou. illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum:
Since the technique of enamelling on metal was introduced by Jesuit Enamels 5, Painted Enamel in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011,
missionaries residing in Guangzhou around 1684, the craftsmen of pp.232-233, no.176. The incense burner is similarly painted with a
Guangzhou proved so proficient in the new craft that by 1716 the turquoise ground and reserves painted with gourds amongst vines
Kangxi emperor was known to have summoned two artisans from within gilded cartouches. See also the related design of gourds on a
there to work in the enamel workshop of the Imperial Household painted enamel cup and cover, Yongzheng mark and period, illustrated
Department in the Palace. By the Qianlong emperor’s reign, the art of by Shi Jingfei, Radiant Luminance: The Painted Enamelware of the
enamelling on metal had reached exceptionally high standards, as the Qing Imperial Court, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, p.100,
present examples illustrate, and this art form continued to receive the no.63.
emperor’s foremost interest and patronage.
Compare with a related ‘Imperial-Tribute’ yellow-ground Canton
enamel tripod incense burner and cover, Qianlong mark and period,
which was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 June 2015, lot 669.

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