QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The shape of this censer is clearly based upon ancient bronze vessels. The blade-shaped legs, loop handles and flanges, along with the motifs of kui dragons below the rim and wide spreading taotie masks, all have their prototypes in Zhou dynasty bronzes, many of which are illustrated in Xiqing gujian, 'Inspection of Antiques from the Zhou Dynasty', the catalogues of ancient bronzes in the Qing Court Collection compiled under the authorization of the Qianlong emperor in 1755. Except for the taotie design, there are no further archaistic references on the cover and the legs of the current censer. They are both decorated with Buddhist lions and floral scrolls, motifs prevalent during the 17th/18th century. The dragon heads are also a later reference and of imperial significance. Compare to a few smaller fangding examples which also share this juxtaposition of archaic and contemporary motifs. A Qianlong-marked fangding with cover, also decorated with taotie design and with flat dragon-form legs, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, no. 59. Further examples from the Qing Court Collection include two censers in the Palace Museum, one dated to the early Qing period and with a gilt openwork cover and lion finial, the other with a Qianlong six-character mark but without a cover, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum - Enamels (2) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pls. 68 and 245. Another example, also with a gilt lion finial on the cover, is illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum - The Enamel Volume, Shenyang, 2007, p. 147, pl. 1 (fig. 1).

Compare also to a Qianlong-marked example of slightly larger size (55 cm. high) from the Mandel Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2012, lot 3908.