Page 365 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

Taihedian (Hall of Supreme Harmony), the Forbidden City;
image courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing

A smaller pair (96.8cm high) of cloisonné enamel crane censers and For another related example of cranes (184cm high) see Zhang Xin, ed.,
covers, similarly modelled standing on top of a fenced tiered stand, Colorful, Elegant, And Exquisite: A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel
Qianlong marks and of the period, from the Qing Court Collection, is Ware from Mr. Robert Chang’s Collection, 2007, pp.70-71. Compare
illustrated by Zheng Xinmiao, ed., in Compendium of Collections in the a related pair of double cranes also standing atop peaked mountains
Palace Museum: Enamels, vol.3, Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty (1644- scattered with flowers but above waves, dated Yongzheng period, sold
1911), Beijing and Hefei, 2011, pl.18. The stands of the Palace Museum at Christie’s Hong Kong on 1 December 2012, lot 2983. A similar pair of
Qianlong cranes are similar in general form but do not have the impressive cranes was sold by Christie’s London on 1 April 1968, lot 139, dated late
mountain peaks used to further elevate the cranes and to reinforce the 18th century; and another pair sold at Christie’s London on 6 November
imagery and mythical symbolism. However, related mountain peaks are 1973, Lot 239.
present on two pairs of smaller cloisonné enamel cranes (114cm and
136.5cm respectively) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated as Mid-Qing
Dynasty, and illustrated ibid., vol.4, pls.70 and 71; similar stands also
appear on the Shenyang Palace crane, dated Qianlong, ibid. pp.88-89.
This would indeed suggest an attribution of the present monumental pair
of cranes to the Qianlong or Jiaqing reign period.

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