Page 52 - CHRISTIE'S Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art 09/14 - 15 / 17

ANOTHER PROPERTY

~932
A RARE CORAL, HARDSTONE AND
GLASS-INLAID GILT-BRONZE
PHOENIX-FORM CANDLEHOLDER

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)
The candleholder is fnely cast as two phoenixes standing
side by side on a rockwork base from which sprouts
lingzhi fungus. The two birds face in opposite directions
with heads turned backwards facing the candleholder
cast as a gnarled stem bearing further stems of lingzhi,
their hollow bodies engraved with fne feather markings
and inlaid all over with glass, coral and various hardstones.
6Ω in. (16.5 cm.) high
$80,000-100,000

Compare two gilt-bronze candleholders of very similar
size and form and dated to the Qianlong period, one sold
at Christie’s Paris, 21 November 2008, lot 161, and the
other, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2009,
lot 1734. See, also, the very similar pair of larger size,
sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1179,
and the related candleholder with two birds surrounding
a hollow trunk in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, illustrated by P. Rawson and L. Legaza in Tao: la
Philosophie Chinoise de Temps et du Changement, Paris,
1973, p. 101, fg. 17.
Also related are hardstone-embellished gilt-bronze
censers of qilin form and Qianlong date, such as the
example illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense
Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, Taipei,
1994, no. 119, as well as the example sold at Christie’s
Hong Kong, 29 November 2005, lot 1584.
清乾隆 銅鎏金嵌寶雙鳳式燭臺

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