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Lot Essay
It is quite unusual to find a cloisonné censer from 15th century applied with 18th century gilt-bronze mounts. The closest examples to the present lot are two tripod censers one from the Asian art Museum of San Francisco, B62M5, the other from the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass., 63.23.150, both illustrated in B.Quette (ed.), Cloisonné : Chinese enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2011, pp.286-287, pl.122 and 123.
The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of imperial bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced back at least as far as the Xuande reign (1426 -1435). An example of a censer, bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark, on which the elephants balance on their rolled trunks, as on the current censers, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, p. 199, no. 54. Another cloisonné censer standing on three elephant's heads from the Ming dynasty Jingtai reign (1450-1456) in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971, no. 3. Cloisonné censers on three gilded elephant heads are still standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and illustrated in La Cité Interdite, p. 9, fig. 6.
Another one with phoenix handles and cabriole legs from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, is illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, no. 15. See also another censer with gilded makara handles, sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 30 April 2000, lot 576.
The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of imperial bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced back at least as far as the Xuande reign (1426 -1435). An example of a censer, bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark, on which the elephants balance on their rolled trunks, as on the current censers, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, p. 199, no. 54. Another cloisonné censer standing on three elephant's heads from the Ming dynasty Jingtai reign (1450-1456) in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971, no. 3. Cloisonné censers on three gilded elephant heads are still standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and illustrated in La Cité Interdite, p. 9, fig. 6.
Another one with phoenix handles and cabriole legs from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, is illustrated by Sir Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, no. 15. See also another censer with gilded makara handles, sold in our Hong Kong Rooms, 30 April 2000, lot 576.