Lot Essay
For a Ming cloisonné prototype, see the example illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1971, colour plate 3, also illustrated by W. F. Alexander and D. K. Gerber, Cloisonné Extraordinaire, p.19. Massive Qing Dynasty examples of this form can be found in The Forbidden City: see the example in the Hall of Mental Cultivation illustrated by Yu Zhuoyun, Palaces of the Forbidden City, p.91; another, in the throne room in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, illustrated by Wan Yi, Wang Shuqing and Lu Yanzheng, Life in the Forbidden City, p.56, no.69; and a third in the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity, illustrated in colour in the Musée du Petit Palais Exhibition, Paris, 1996-7, La Cité Interdite, Catalogue, p.12, fig.10. Compare also the large censer, originally in the Kitson Collection, illustrated by Sir H. Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, pl.72 and p.92.