Page 120 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

THE PROPERTY OF MARCHANT, EST. 1925
789
A RARE DOUCAI CANDLESTICK
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE
IN A LINE WITHIN A PANEL AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The candlestick, with bell-shaped base, large circular drip pan with upright
sides and everted rim, and a smaller drip pan raised on a tapering column, is
fnely decorated throughout in bright doucai enamels with gilt highlights, with
leafy meander bearing lotus blossoms, and bands of key fret, lotus lappets, ruyi
heads and diaper pattern. The reign mark is in a line within a rectangular panel
on the side of the large drip pan.
14 in. (35.5 cm.) high

$30,000-40,000

Such candlesticks were frequently made as part of Imperial altar garnitures,
with ensuite tripod censers and gu-shaped vases. See, for example, the
candlesticks from the imperial Qianlong-marked fve-piece garniture
presented by Lord Kitchener to Sir Thomas Hohler and sold at Sotheby’s
London, 17 December 1980, lot 677, and again on 11 May 2011, lot 230.
Another Qianlong fve-piece doucai garniture, formerly in the Meiyintang
Collection, is illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang
Collection, London, 2010, vol. 4, no. 1752, and was sold at Sotheby’s Hong
Kong, 4 April 2012, lot 50.
清乾隆 鬥彩纏枝蓮紋花觚 六字篆書橫款

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