Page 69 - Art De' Asie Christie's Paris December 16, 2022

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PAIRE DE GRANDS BRÛLE-PARFUMS COUVERTS TRIPODES EN
ÉMAUX CLOISONNÉS ET BRONZE DORÉ
CHINE
Ils sont formés de quatre éléments superposés. La panse arrondie terminée
par un col évasé à décor de lotus parmi les rinceaux feuillagés repose sur une
base munie de trois pieds en forme de têtes d'éléphant dorées parées de bijoux
alternés avec des réserves abritant des dragons archaïsants stylisés sur fond
turquoise. Les trois éléments cylindriques ajourés formant le couvercle sont
décorés de chauves-souris en vol entre des bandeaux à décor de lotus sur le
registre inférieur, autour de réserves quadrilobées contenant des dragons
archaïsants affrontés sur le deuxième registre, et sous des phénix affrontés
parmi les pivoines, chrysanthèmes et rinceaux feuillagés dans quatre larges
réserves en forme de tête de ruyi sur l'élément supérieur. Le couvercle est muni
d'une imposante prise globulaire ajourée figurant un dragon à cinq griffes à la
poursuite de la perle enflammée parmi les nuées.
Hauteur : 95 cm. (37¡ in.) (2)
€50,000-70,000 US$51,000-71,000
£44,000-61,000
PROVENANCE:
From a private European family collection acquired in the French market, by
repute.

A PAIR OF MAGNIFICENT AND MASSIVE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL AND
GILT-BRONZE COVERED BRAZIERS
CHINA
掐絲琺瑯鏤雕蓮紋象足大熏爐 一對
來源:
歐洲私人舊藏，傳購自法國藝術品市場
Multi-tiered cloisonné braziers or censers of this shape and of this large size
appear to be very rare and our present lot pays tribute to the best examples of
this kind under the Qianlong’s reign.A similar pair of magnificent imperial bra-
ziers, dated Qianlong period, also with rounded sides and elephant-head feet
from the Kitson and C. Ruxton & Audrey B. Love collections was sold at Chris-
tie’s New York, 20 October 2004, lot 354. See another impressive
Qianlong brazier which is highly comparable to our present
lot, sold at Sotheby’s London, 13 May 2009, lot 37. Also com-
pare with a smaller octagonal censer with three sections and
less elaborate finial and feet as well as an octagonal three-tiered
brazier of smaller size in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Enamels
(3) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Compendium of Collections in
the Palace Museum, Beijing and Anhui, 2011, p. 277, no. 238 and p. 279, no.
240 respectively. During the Qing dynasty, these braziers were decorative art
objects of the highest quality, but they were also made to be used. The most
convenient form of heating in the Imperial palaces was braziers. Beijing gets
very cold in winter and the limited under-floor heating, few stoves and heat-
ed kang were not sufficient to keep the inhabitants of the Forbidden City even
moderately warm. The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of
imperial bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced back
at least as far as the Xuande reign (AD 1426 - 35). An example of a censer,
bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark, on which the elephants balance on
their rolled trunks, as on the current censers, is in the collection of the National
Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burn-
ers and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei,
1994, p. 199, no. 54. A much smaller (H: 27.8 cm.) cloisonné censer standing
on three elephant’s heads from the Ming dynasty Jingtai reign (AD 1450 - 56)
in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Mas-
terpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971,
no. 3. And cloisonné censers on three gilded elephant heads that still stand at
the foot of the steps leading up to the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme
Harmony in the Beijing Palace are illustrated ibid.., La Cité Interdite, p. 9, fig. 6.

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