Lot 601
601
A PAIR OF LARGE EXPORT FIGURES OF CRANES

Details
A PAIR OF LARGE EXPORT FIGURES OF CRANES
QIANLONG

Each slender bird modelled standing on one leg, the other positioned on adjacent mottled rockwork enamelled in shades of purple and blue, their white bodies finely painted in gilt to represent layers of feathers, their beaks and feet picked out in greenish-brown, with iron-red crests and green eyes, one with some restoration to rockwork - 17 1/2 in. (44.5 cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Cf. Du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, 1984, p. 300, fig. 1, for a very similar pair of cranes. Slightly larger examples were sold Christie's London, November 17, 1986, lot 176, and Sotheby's New York, The Collection of John T. Dorrance Jr., October 20, 1989, lot 458