Page 172 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art London Nov. 2019

Lieutenant-Colonel T.S.Cox (detail)

The Property of a Gentleman 紳士藏品 Lieutenant-Colonel T.S. Cox in China 1900 – 1902
July 1900: Cox was ordered to North China to join the China
131 * Expeditionary Force to relieve the siege of the Beijing International
Legation Area by Chinese ‘Boxers’. Collected a troop of 16th Bengal
A VERY RARE AND LARGE CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL Lancers in Hong Kong on August 15 1900 and disembarked at
AND GILT-BRONZE CANDLESTICK
Qianlong four-character mark and of the period Sinho for Tianjin on September 11. Advanced on Beijing September/
With a large bell-shaped base rising to a central bulb supporting a October 1900. Subsequently placed in charge of a ‘Flying Column’
large circular dish tray, set to the centre with a tall tapering cylindrical sent to capture Boxer leaders at Baoding, a hundred miles south-west
neck, surmounted by a small bulbous section, decorated in brilliant of Beijing. Campaign medal, and learned to speak Chinese. Passed
enamels on a bright turquoise ground with stylized lotus blossoms 6-day Chinese language examination.
borne on dense scrolling leafy stems, the rims with gilt key-fret bands.
68.2cm (26 7/8in) high. January - June 1901 worked for the British Military Commander,
General Sir Alfred Gaselee, and awarded Military Order of the Dragon
in April. July 1901 promoted Staff Captain and seconded to raise
£15,000 - 20,000 and train a Battalion of Chinese Railway Police, whose task was to
CNY130,000 - 180,000 guard the Beijing, Tongshan, and Tianjin districts for the British High
Command, stationed at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
清乾隆 掐絲琺瑯纏枝蓮紋大燭台
「乾隆年製」楷書刻款 January 1 - December 25 1902 Cox was the Officer Commanding
Railway Police, Chinese Imperial Railways, most of this time under
Provenance: Lieutenant-Colonel T.S.Cox, and thence by descent contract to the Chinese Imperial Government. In addition to this role,
from June 1 to December 1902 he was ‘Confidential Adviser’ to His
來源：T.S.Cox中校收藏，並由後人保存迄今 Imperial Highness Prince Su, Governor of Beijing (the emperor’s uncle),
and from August 15 to December 1902 also ‘Confidential Adviser’ to
Lieutenant-Colonel T.S.Cox graduated from Sandhurst Military his imperial Highness Prince Qing, Head of Chinese Octroi (Customs)
Academy in 1892 and was commissioned in 1894 into the 16th Indian Department. Cox received a Letter of Appreciation and was awarded a
Cavalry, The Bengal Lancers. His noteworthy military service included Chinese Imperial Decoration for his services. He left Beijing for India on
in 1897, Tochi Field Force, N.W. Frontier; and in 1900, the China December 25 1902.
Expeditionary Force during the Boxer Rebellion, when he was awarded
the US Military Order of the Dragon. In 1901 he was seconded The present lot would have originally served as a part of a garniture
as Advisor to the Chinese Government and awarded an Imperial set for ritual or ancestral altars. By the Qing dynasty, garnitures had
decoration by Shanqi, Prince Su (1866-1922). In 1903 he was elected become imposing displays, proclaiming the wealth and status of the
to the Royal Geographical Society. In 1903 he served as Captain in commissioner or owner as they graced the altars of temples and
the Indian Army; between 1904–1907, he was posted in the D.M.O. imperial households.
War Office, London, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Somaliland, Abyssinia,
Russian Central Asia, and Ottoman Middle East; in 1911 he was Compare with a very similar cloisonné-enamel pricket candlestick,
awarded the King George V Delhi Coronation Durbar medal. Between Qianlong mark and period, which is probably the pair to the present
1912-1913 he was posted in the Middle East and Central Asia. In lot, illustrated in Chinese Cloisonne: The Pierre Uldry Collection,
1915, he took part in the Gallipoli Campaign and in 1916 transferred New York, 1989, p.250, no.250a. For a related five-piece cloisonné
to command the 37th Dogras. In 1917 he served in the Mesopotamian enamel garniture in the Qing Court Collection, comprising a related
campaign and was wounded whilst serving in the Aden Field Force. In pair of pricket candlesticks decorated with lotus meanders, see The
1920 he served with the Waziristan Field Force, NW Frontier; in 1921 Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied
he transferred to command the 3rd Madras Regiment and in 1925 he Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl.138.
retired from the Indian Army as Lieutenant-Colonel.

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170 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.