ONLINE BIDDING SERVICES ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS LOT

NO INTERNET BIDDING POSSIBLE FOR THIS LOT

10 000€ DEPOSIT WILL BE REQUIRED / CAUTION SERA DEMANDÉE

Rare covered copper, copper alloy and cloisonné enamel incense burner with lotus decoration, six-character Qianlong kaishu mark followed by the shu character - 暑,China, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

The globular body decorated with a design of six lotus flowers among flowering scrolls and a frieze of ruyi heads in blue above a short gilt copper foot. The shoulder is decorated on its perimeter with a frieze of lotus leaves and ruyi heads in relief and gilded, and flanked by two handles in the shape of a stylized dragon. The lid is decorated with a small floral frieze in polychrome enamels and two friezes in relief gilded and chiseled with lotus petals and ruyi framing an openwork part of a motif of peony flowers in scrolls. At the top, a gilded copper knob with clouds. Below the base, four flowers within foliage in polychrome cloisonné enamels frame a thin rectangular gilt copper plate incised in kaishu with the six-character Qianlong mark followed by the shu character. 七宝焼き.

Height: 17.5 cm (12 cm without lid); gross weight: 936 g

Lid slightly deformed and repaired.

This incense burner belongs to a rare group of Qianlong-period gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel objects bearing incised Qianlong kaishu marks and an additional single-character kaishu mark known as the "Thousand-character Classic" or qian zi wen (千字文). This extra character could correspond to the place where the object was to be placed or to a specific numbering in relation to a coherent set of cloisonne of different forms or uses.

Cf. H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinesisches Cloisonné Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zurich, 1985, pp. 74-79.

The Palace Museum in Beijing holds some cloisonné from this specific group (a perfume burner, a small box and a small vase) illustrated in: Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels 3 Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pl. 4.