A CLOISONN AND GILT-BRONZE ELEPHANT VASE

18TH CENTURY

Details

A CLOISONN AND GILT-BRONZE ELEPHANT VASE
18th Century
The caparisoned elephant standing foursquare on a separate chamfered rectangular base and applied with a saddle-cloth with ribboned symbols surmounted by a gilt-bronze vase with champlev enamel cloud design at the neck
9in. (24.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

Elephants represented in this way are higly auspicious and contain the rebus formed of the homonyms ping (bottle) for peace, an (saddle-cloth) for tranquility and xiang (elephant) for symbol.

Compare a pair of similar elephants illustrated by W. Yi in Daily Life in the Forbidden City, Hong Kong, 1988, p. 64, pl. 86, which depicts them in the Eastern Warm Chamber in the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City, as they would have been displayed during the time of Empress Dowager Cixi.