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Lot Essay
The combination of eagles and bears in the gilt-bronze mount refers to the iconography of 'champion vases', as the Chinese names for eagle, ying, and for bear, xiong, provide the homophones for 'champion', ying xiong.
A pair of similar covered vases is displayed in situ at the Zixiao dian in the Yiheyuan, Summer Palace. The hall was a reception area for princes, patriarchs and cabinet ministers when gathered to celebrate the Empress Dowager Cixi's birthdays, and a repository for her birthday gifts.
A similar vase in the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, The Enamel Volume, 2007, p. 170, no. 14. A very similar, unpublished, vase with cover is in the collection of the British Museum, collection no. 1992.0704.1. Compare, also, one sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot 116, another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3544, and a pair sold at Christie's New York, 13-14 September 2018, lot 1218.
A pair of similar covered vases is displayed in situ at the Zixiao dian in the Yiheyuan, Summer Palace. The hall was a reception area for princes, patriarchs and cabinet ministers when gathered to celebrate the Empress Dowager Cixi's birthdays, and a repository for her birthday gifts.
A similar vase in the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, The Enamel Volume, 2007, p. 170, no. 14. A very similar, unpublished, vase with cover is in the collection of the British Museum, collection no. 1992.0704.1. Compare, also, one sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot 116, another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3544, and a pair sold at Christie's New York, 13-14 September 2018, lot 1218.