A RARE GLASS-INLAID AND ENAMEL-DECORATED GILT-BRONZE RUYI SCEPTER

Elegantly and naturalistically cast as a fruiting branch, the present scepter is a dazzling testament to the skill of the Chinese craftsmen during the Qianlong period.
Two very similar scepters, with hardstone rather than glass peaches, have been sold by Christie's, one in our Paris rooms, 13 June 2007, lot 89 and another in our Hong Kong rooms, 3 November 1998, lot 1053, which was illustrated by Lin Shwu-shin, The Jade-Carving Art in the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1996, pp. 128-9. It is possible that these scepters would have originally belonged to a set of three, including one with pomegranates and one with finger citrons, thereby representing the sanduo. Such a set was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 22 May 1979, lot 296.