Page 289 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

1792
A CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL TRIPOD CENSER
MING DYNASTY, 16TH- EARLY 17TH CENTURY
The compressed body is raised on three gilt-bronze elephant-form supports,
and decorated around the sides with six large lotus blossoms borne on
scrolling leafy tendrils, below a green-ground border of fower-heads, and
above seven further fower-heads on the base. A pair of gilt-bronze handles
formed as coiled chilong rise from the everted rim.
5 in. (12.7 cm.) diam.
$15,000-18,000

A related cloisonné enamel censer, featuring the same gilt-bronze feet and
handles but decorated with cranes amidst clouds, is illustrated by H. Brinker
and A. Lutz in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Zurich, 1989,
no. 56, where it is dated to the frst half of the 16th century. Closely related
handles can also be seen on an early Ming drum-shaped cloisonné censer in
the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures
of the Palace Museum - Metal-Bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 17,
no. 15.
Compare a similar cloisonné censer sold at Christie’s New York, 15
September 2011, lot 1203, and another sold at Christie’s Paris, 19 December
2012, lot 18.
(detail)
明十六/十七世紀初 掐絲琺瑯龍耳獸足三足爐

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