Page 169 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT HATFIELD ELLSWORTH

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A RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL DUCK-
HEAD BOTTLE
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD
(1736-1795)

The pear-shaped body is decorated with
fower scroll bearing large blossoms on leafy
meandering stems that rise from a band of
blue overlapping petals and continue up to
a narrow gilt-copper collar encircling the
neck below turquoise feathers that decorate
the upper arched neck and head, with a gilt-
rimmed circular opening at the back of the
head, glass-inlaid eyes and a gilt beak, the
foot encircled by lotus sprays.

10º in. (28 cm.) high

$40,000-60,000

PROVENANCE

The Collection of Robert H. Ellsworth, New
York, before 1984.

LITERATURE

A. Martin, “American Mandarin,”
Connoisseur, November 1984, p. 99.

A cloisonné enamel vessel of this shape decorated
with cell diaper, dated to the Qianlong period, in
the collection of Les Arts Décoratifs-musée des
Arts décoratifs, Paris, is illustrated by Beatrice
Quette (ed.) in Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels
from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard
Graduate Center, New York, 2011, p. 266-
67, no. 84, and p. 87, fg. 5.10, where a page
from the eighteenth century bronze catalogue
Xiqing gujian, juan 21, which depicts a bronze
vessel of related shape, is illustrated. See, also,
another cloisonné enamel duck-head bottle, also
decorated with cell diaper sold at Christie’s New
York, 18 September 2004, lot 620. This unusual
shape is frst seen in bronze during the Han
dynasty (221 BC-AD 220), such as the gilt-bronze
example sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March,
2002, lot 80.

清乾隆 掐絲琺琅鳬首曲項壺

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