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

While a number of cloisonné enamel basins of lobed form and decorated with lotus sprays have been recorded, they are usually of considerably larger size, such as an example of similar shape from the Beijing Palace Museum Collection, decorated with lotus sprays and phoenixes (42.5 cm. wide), illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum - Enamels (4) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pl. 4. It is very unusual to find a cloisonné enamel basin of such small size as the present lot. One comparable example is a slightly smaller basin of similar shape (13.8 cm. wide), also with a Qianlong mark and adorned with dragons and lotus blooms, sold at Christie's London, 11 May 2010, lot 120 (fig. 1).