Page 94 - Christie's, Important Chinese Works of Art, Hong Kong Dec 3 2021

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A VERY FINE CLOISONNE ENAMEL This exquisite censer is extraordinarily well-crafted and features
strong colours precisely applied within fine, accurately bent wires
CENSER AND COVER that delineate the contours of the emphatic design. This refinement
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722) is echoed in the precise execution of the key-fret pattern around the
edges of the mouth rim, the elegantly splayed rope-twist handles, and
The censer is cast in the form of an archaic bronze liding with a tri- the superb casting of the pierced cover decorated with five-clawed
lobed body raised on three short tapering legs and a pair of rope- dragons amidst vaporous clouds below stalks of lingzhi that rise like
twist handles rising from the rim. The exterior of the body and the flames on the bud-form finial.
legs are finely decorated with lotus scrolls below a band of florettes The proportions of the censer, with its generously rounded body
encircling the neck. The gilt-bronze cover is cast in openwork tapering to the three tiny feet, are similar to a Kangxi mark-and-period
with a pair of dragons confronting the flaming pearl amid clouds, cloisonné enamel censer in the Qing Court Collection, Palace Museum,
Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
below a bud-form finial cast with interlinked ruyi clouds. Museum - 43 - Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 83, no.
7 in. (18 cm.) high, box 80. Also illustrated, p. 82, no. 79, is another Kangxi mark-and-period
cloisonné enamel censer in the Qing Court Collection that is also raised
HK$350,000-450,000 US$46,000-58,000 on three small tapering feet, but has a broader, more compressed body
and plain loop handles. Similar small tapering feet can also be seen
PROVENANCE on the painted enamel tripod censer, bearing a Kangxi yuzhi mark,
A New England private collection from the Alfred Morrison Collection, Fonthill House, sold at Christie’s
London, 9 November 2004, lot 21.
清康熙 掐絲琺琅纏枝蓮紋鬲式蓋爐 Similar treatment of the lotus blossoms can be seen on the cloisonné
enamel ‘champion vase’ dated to the Kangxi period from the Springfield
來源 Museums Collection, and formerly in the collection of George Walter
美國新英格蘭舊藏 Vincent Smith (1832-1923), sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November
2020, lot 2907. See also, a Kangxi-period cloisonné enamel vase
with similar lotus scroll decoration, from the collection of Juan Jose
Amezaga, sold at Christie’s Paris, 13 June 2007, lot 19.

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