A RARE PAIR OF CHINESE CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL AND JADE PAGODA-FORM LANTERNS

QIANLONG PERIOD (1736 - 1795)

Details

A RARE PAIR OF CHINESE CHAMPLEVE ENAMEL AND JADE PAGODA-FORM LANTERNS
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736 - 1795)
Each waisted pedestal base raised on six ruyi supports and decorated with lotus scroll and bands of petal lappets, below a platform with dark green jade openwork railings on five sides enclosing six tall slender columns decorated in turquoise enamel encircling the central hexagonal gilt-metal structure inset with grayish-white jade plaques pierced and carved with Buddhist emblems, one side a hinged door held shut with tiny bat-form clasps, all below a double pagoda roof hung with bells and inset with 'jewels' surmounted by a large faceted finial inlaid with dark green jade plaques; electrified
34 in. (86.4 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 1 July 1969, lot 29.

Lot Essay

Censers of this type with pierced jade centers and bell-hung pagoda roofs were placed in Imperial audience rooms, as can be seen in a photograph of the Imperial Throne in the Main Room of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Secret World of the Forbidden City; Splendors from China's Imperial Palace, The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, Santa Ana, California, 2000, p. 38. Another similar pair of hexagonal incense burners placed on side tables in the Nine Room Pavilion (The Pavilion of Continuing Thought) where the consorts who accompanied the Emperor Qianlong when he visited the Shenyang Palace are illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Imperial Life in the Qing Dynasty, The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1989, p. 67.

More from The C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection: Important

View All