QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A PAIR OF CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL MYTHICAL BEASTS
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
Each modelled recumbent, the striated feline-head with an elaborate horn and a short beard resting on a bulging breast, the mouth open to expose fangs, its body decorated with tendrils radiating from florettes all against a turquoise-ground, the haunch detailed with overlapping feathers, cast with a square gilt-metal four-character reign mark on the feathered under-belly decorated in pink enamel
8½ in. (21.7 cm.) long (2)

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Lot Essay

An example of this rare group of auspicious animals is in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of the Treasures of the Palace Museum, 43, Metal-Bodied Enamel Ware Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 123, pl. 119. Whilst the Palace example and the present pair are modelled with lion-form heads, there is a related group of this type with ram-form heads such as the mythical animal included in the exhibition, International Art Treasures Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1962, pl. 119, no. 573, and were later sold in these rooms, 6 December 1993, lot 166; and a related cloisonné beast cast as a censer in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, illustrated by H. Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1970, pl. 68B.

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