A RARE IMPERIAL INSCRIBED CLOISONNE ENAMEL, GILT-BRONZE AND ZITAN MINIATURE SCREEN

THE PROPERTY OF AN ASIAN GENTLEMAN

Details

A RARE IMPERIAL INSCRIBED CLOISONNE ENAMEL, GILT-BRONZE AND ZITAN MINIATURE SCREEN
QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Comprising five tall rectangular leaves, three positioned in line flanked by two oblique, each containing a pierced cloisonné plaque decorated with foliate scrolls and centred with a florette motif containing a pearl, all above a bat with pink wings and set against a gilt-bronze ground chased with flowers, surmounted by a zitan pediment inlaid in silver with key-pattern and inset with gilt-bronze bats and Shou symbols, supported by ruyi-shaped brackets on a waisted zitan stand carved with lotus petals and inset with oval cloisonné plaques and pierced ruyi motifs, the reverse comprising zitan panels incised and gilt with five poetic inscriptions framed in gilt-bronze and bamboo
191/4 x 24 in. (49 x 61 cm.)

Lot Essay

Previously sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 28 April 1996, lot 16.

Full-sized screens with cloisonné or champlevé enamel plaques set within zitan frames are illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 43, Hong Kong, 2002, pls. 134-136. The screen illustrated as pl. 136 was also included in the Chinese University of Hong Kong exhibition, Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, 1987, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 90, where Yang Boda refers to a similar screen having been presented to the Emperor Qianlong by the Governor of Guangdong, p. 139.

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