Page 182 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

THE PROPERTY OF MARCHANT, EST. 1925

1213
A RARE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL CENSER
QIANLONG INCISED SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The sides are fanked by a pair of gilded horned animal mask handles and decorated with two registers
separated by a narrow gilt band, the lower register with six lotus sprays, each fower centered by a
lotus pod, and the upper register with six peony sprays, all above a band of peony sprays on the slightly
fared foot. The gilded base is inscribed with the Qianlong mark in a vertical line above an additional
character, zhu.
5æ in. (14.5 cm.) wide across handles

$60,000-80,000

PROVENANCE
Acquired in Paris, 2011.
The delicate, small-scale lotus scroll of this censer is a classic cloisonné design from the Qianlong
period, however the addition of the elephant-head handles is most unusual on cloisonné vessels, as is
the mark incised on a gilt panel reserved on a cloisonné ground on the base. The present censer is
also rare in that the elephant-head handles were applied prior to enameling. Such a process would have
required much greater precision in craftsmanship than applying the handles after enameling, which
was a common practice by this time. See, for example, a censer with lion-mask handles, which were also
applied before the piece was enameled, exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum, and illustrated in Chinese
Cloisonné: The Clague Collection, Phoenix, 1980, p. 86-97, pl. 35.
A cylindrical brush holder with lotus scroll, and a four-character Qianlong mark followed by an additional
character fu, the mark incised in a square panel reserved on a cloisonné ground on the base, is illustrated
by H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, London/New York, 1989, nos.
248 and 248a. Compare, also, two ‘lotus scroll’ cloisonné censers with applied gilt-bronze handles, the frst
with a Qianlong mark and the second with an apocryphal Jingtai mark, illustrated ibid., nos. 249 and 252
For a discussion of the various additional characters seen with Qianlong-marked cloisonné,
see the footnote to lot 1212.
清乾隆 掐絲琺瑯牡丹蓮紋獸耳爐 六字楷書及「珠」字直行刻款

(base)

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