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Lot Essay
Cloisonne enamel moonflasks are surprisingly rare, as the form, with two large circular 'canvases', permitted the craftsman greater ease to design complex decorative motifs. The present moonflask, with its majestic construction, exquisite enamelling and elaborately cast handles, is undoubtedly made for imperial use and is representative of Qing imperial cloisonné enamels of the highest quality.
The extremely ornate phoenix handles cast with painstaking details on the present vase are of unprecedented quality, and are reminiscent of the rococo style in vogue in contemporaneous Europe, which noticeably provided inspiration for certain works of art produced for the Qing court especially during the Qianlong period. These handles are in a style very similar to a cloisonné enamel rhyton attached with a gilt-bronze phoenix in profile, also finely detailed and dating to the Qianlong period, from the Robert Chang Collection (fig. 1) and included in the exhibition Colorful, Elegant, and Exquisite: A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from Mr. Robert Chang’s Collection, Suzhou Museum, 2007-2008, Catalogue, pp. 34-35. See a magnificent Qianlong cloisonne enamel tripod censer with a pair of phoenix handles, sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2915.
A similar Qianlong cloisonne enamel moonflask depicting bajixiang encircling a Yin Yang symbol, is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Average Brundage Collection, B61M8+. Cat.91, illustrated by B. Quette, Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, New York, Paris, New Haven and London, 2011, p. 107.
Compare with a smaller moonflask (36.1 cm. high) decorated with rocks and peonies illustrated by C. Brown, Chinese Cloisonne, The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1980, pl. 46. Two further examples with simpler handles are included in the National Palace Museum exhibition, Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, and illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 65, designed with a scene from the 'Ode on the Red Cliff' (46 cm. high); and pl. 66 with a depiction of spring cultivation (46.8 cm. high).
The extremely ornate phoenix handles cast with painstaking details on the present vase are of unprecedented quality, and are reminiscent of the rococo style in vogue in contemporaneous Europe, which noticeably provided inspiration for certain works of art produced for the Qing court especially during the Qianlong period. These handles are in a style very similar to a cloisonné enamel rhyton attached with a gilt-bronze phoenix in profile, also finely detailed and dating to the Qianlong period, from the Robert Chang Collection (fig. 1) and included in the exhibition Colorful, Elegant, and Exquisite: A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from Mr. Robert Chang’s Collection, Suzhou Museum, 2007-2008, Catalogue, pp. 34-35. See a magnificent Qianlong cloisonne enamel tripod censer with a pair of phoenix handles, sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 29 November 2017, lot 2915.
A similar Qianlong cloisonne enamel moonflask depicting bajixiang encircling a Yin Yang symbol, is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Average Brundage Collection, B61M8+. Cat.91, illustrated by B. Quette, Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, New York, Paris, New Haven and London, 2011, p. 107.
Compare with a smaller moonflask (36.1 cm. high) decorated with rocks and peonies illustrated by C. Brown, Chinese Cloisonne, The Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, 1980, pl. 46. Two further examples with simpler handles are included in the National Palace Museum exhibition, Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, and illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 65, designed with a scene from the 'Ode on the Red Cliff' (46 cm. high); and pl. 66 with a depiction of spring cultivation (46.8 cm. high).