Page 140 - Roger Kaverne Moving On part 2 Bonhams UK June 7, 2021

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A PAIR OF BRONZE ELEPHANT VASES A PAINTED ENAMEL ‘MAGU AND DEER’ SAUCER-DISH
18th century Diao yue geng yun four-character mark, Yongzheng
The animals heavily cast standing four-square with their heads lowered Finely and delicately enamelled in the interior with the Daoist Immortal
and looking to the left and right, each body elaborately grooved with Magu, the Goddess of Longevity, holding a lingzhi spray in her left
hide markings and draped with caparisons around an elaborate saddle hand and a peach in her right, walking over a bed of turbulent waves
supporting a pear-shaped vase. 19cm (7 1/2in) long. (2). with a deer and a female attendant carrying a basket of flowers,
all within a border of blossoming lotus and scrollwork, the reverse
£2,500 - 3,500 decorated with a cracked-ice ground, mark. 22.1cm (8 6/8in) diam.
CNY23,000 - 32,000
£1,200 - 1,500
Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價 CNY11,000 - 14,000

十八世紀 銅製太平有象一對 Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價

The elephant together with the vase forms a rebus. The ‘vase’ (ping 清雍正 銅胎畫琺瑯「麻姑獻壽圖」盤
瓶) which puns with ‘peace’ (ping 平), and elephant (xiang 象) which 「釣月耕雲」篆書款
also means ‘sign’ or ‘portent’, forms a rebus for the phrase taiping
youxiang (太平有象), meaning ‘Where there is peace, there is a sign (or The reverse has the mark ‘釣月耕雲’ which may be translated as
elephant)’. ‘fishing under the moon and ploughing the clouds’.

See a similar pair of elephant vases, 18th century, illustrated by P.K.Hu,
Later Chinese Bronzes: The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert
E.Kresko Collections, Saint Louis, 2008, no.30.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
138 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.