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

Another example of this rare group of auspicious animals, also bearing a Qianlong mark, is in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Metal-Bodied Enamel Ware, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, 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 was later sold at Christie's London, 6 December 1993, lot 166; and a related cloisonne enamel mythical beast cast as a censer in the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, is illustrated by H. Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonne Enamels, London, 1970, pl. 68B.