Lot Essay
The exceptionally fine casting of the pagoda and of the multitude of figures are remarkable.
A related gilt-bronze structure of similar form encircled by rings with figures, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, The Crafts, Gold, Silver, Glass and Enamels, vol. 10, fig. 189.
Compare to the closely related cloisonne enamel and coral-inlaid model sold in our London Rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 289, now in the British Museum, with a Qianlong dated mark corresponding to 1772, illustrated by Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, no. 141. The author explains that this and other three-dimentional mandalas 'were popular under the reign of Emperor Qianlong for us in the Tibetan-style palaces at the Manchu summer resort of Jeheol (present-day Chengde)'.
(US$35,000-40,000)
A related gilt-bronze structure of similar form encircled by rings with figures, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, The Crafts, Gold, Silver, Glass and Enamels, vol. 10, fig. 189.
Compare to the closely related cloisonne enamel and coral-inlaid model sold in our London Rooms, 10 December 1990, lot 289, now in the British Museum, with a Qianlong dated mark corresponding to 1772, illustrated by Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, no. 141. The author explains that this and other three-dimentional mandalas 'were popular under the reign of Emperor Qianlong for us in the Tibetan-style palaces at the Manchu summer resort of Jeheol (present-day Chengde)'.
(US$35,000-40,000)