19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF MASSIVE CLOISONNÉ AND CHAMPLEVÉ ENAMEL CRANE-FORM CENSERS
19TH CENTURY
Each crane is shown standing on a colorful, grassy mound interspersed with orchids and lingzhi that is raised on a waisted, hexagonal base decorated around the sides with lotus scroll and gilt petal-lappet bands, and each grasps in its beak a stem of lingzhi that forms a pricket candlestick. The body is white with a dense pattern of gilt wires, and the separately made wings, which form the cover for the opening in the back of the body, have small turquoise and large, dark greyish-blue feathers similar to the tail feathers.
80½ in. (204.5 cm.) high approximately

Provenance

Acquired in Paris, 1989.

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Lot Essay

A pair of similar cranes, of somewhat smaller size (72 in.), is illustrated in Colorful, Elegant, and Exquisite: A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from Mr. Robert Chang's Collection, 28 December 2007 - 8 May 2008, Suzhou Museum, pp. 70-71, where they are dated Qianlong period. They, also, grasp lingzhi-form candlesticks in their beaks, and have similar white bodies and wing and tail feathers, but the covers are missing. Pairs of similar large crane-form incense burners can be seen in photographs illustrated by Wang-go Weng and Yang Boda in The Palace Museum: Peking, Treasures of the Forbidden City, New York, 1982; one pair grasping lingzhi-form candlesticks in their beaks in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, p. 25, the other pair shown flanking the throne in the Hall of Great Harmony, pp. 44-45, where the authors note that the various cloisonné censers, including the pair of cranes, "emitted fragrant smoke that spiraled upward to envelop the Son of Heaven in ethereal haze."

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