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拍品專文
The present pair of cloisonné enamel candlesticks originally formed part of a Qing imperial wugong (“five piece altar garniture”), a ceremonial ensemble comprising a censer, a pair of candlesticks and a pair of gu vases used in Buddhist shrines, ancestral halls and palace interiors for ritual offerings and formal display. By the Qianlong period, such garnitures had become an important feature of imperial religious furnishings, reflecting both ceremonial function and the Qing court taste for sumptuous decorative arts.
Executed in finely worked cloisonné enamel with lotus scroll decoration reserved on a pale turquoise ground, the present candlesticks exemplify the technical refinement achieved by the imperial enamel workshops during the eighteenth century. Their elegant form, composed of a pricket socket rising from tiered drip pans and a tall bell shaped foot, is enriched by gilt bronze borders cast with key fret motifs.
Within the Qing court decorative system, the arrangement of a wugong ensemble followed a strict ceremonial order, with the censer at the centre, the candlesticks placed to either side, and the pair of gu vases positioned at the outer edges. Complete Qianlong cloisonné enamel wugong garnitures preserved in museum collections provide close points of comparison. The National Palace Museum, Taipei, preserves a complete five piece garniture whose candlesticks closely relate to the present pair in form, decoration and mark. One candlestick from the set, collection no.zhongfa000360N000000000, is identified by the museum as belonging to the same garniture as nos. zhongfa356, 357, 358 and 359.
Compare also a very similar pair of cloisonné enamel lotus candlesticks bearing the same incised four character mark within double squares, later drilled, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 19 March 2025, lot 111, from the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Executed in finely worked cloisonné enamel with lotus scroll decoration reserved on a pale turquoise ground, the present candlesticks exemplify the technical refinement achieved by the imperial enamel workshops during the eighteenth century. Their elegant form, composed of a pricket socket rising from tiered drip pans and a tall bell shaped foot, is enriched by gilt bronze borders cast with key fret motifs.
Within the Qing court decorative system, the arrangement of a wugong ensemble followed a strict ceremonial order, with the censer at the centre, the candlesticks placed to either side, and the pair of gu vases positioned at the outer edges. Complete Qianlong cloisonné enamel wugong garnitures preserved in museum collections provide close points of comparison. The National Palace Museum, Taipei, preserves a complete five piece garniture whose candlesticks closely relate to the present pair in form, decoration and mark. One candlestick from the set, collection no.zhongfa000360N000000000, is identified by the museum as belonging to the same garniture as nos. zhongfa356, 357, 358 and 359.
Compare also a very similar pair of cloisonné enamel lotus candlesticks bearing the same incised four character mark within double squares, later drilled, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 19 March 2025, lot 111, from the Carnegie Museum of Art.