A RARE PAIR OF CLOISONNE ENAMEL ELEPHANTS

18TH/19TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE PAIR OF CLOISONNE ENAMEL ELEPHANTS
18TH/19TH CENTURY
Each white elephant richly caparisoned with multi-colored trappings and draped with a blanket decorated with the wufu flying amidst clouds above a band of waves and rocks, with a another panel representing beaded garland fringe pendent below, with two foreigners kneeling on the animal's back either side of a vase with flared rim and animal masks suspending loose rings, one of which is held by the foreigner kneeling on the rump; with original wood and stained bone stands
12 in. (30.5 cm.) long (2)

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong in the 1950s, and thence by descent within the family.

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Lot Essay

A pair of very similar cloisonné enamel elephants displayed on very similar stands is shown in situ in a photograph of the Dowager Empress Cixi's bedroom illustrated in Gugong Bowu Yuan Cang Ming Qing Gong Ting Jiaju Daquan (Furniture of the Ming and Qing Palaces as Collected in the Palace Museum), Beijing, 2006, p. 698, fig. 800.

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