DESCRIPTION: | The vessel of a compressed globular form supported on three bronze elephant feet, the flat rim cast with a pair of dragons bronze handles shaped as sinuous chilong, decorated around the sides with four large blossoming lotus heads borne on scrolling leafy tendrils, below a green-ground band of flower-headsround body,&, the base with further-three flower bands. |
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Footnotes: | The present lot exhibits a rare feature in the treatment of the lotus, having a lotus pod emerge from the lotus blossom. See a similar decoration of lotus pod in a lotus blossom, in a simplified form, on a cloisonné enamel long neck vase, Xuande mark and period, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in the Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels, 1, Beijing, 2011, no.54,The gilt-bronze sinuous chilong handles and feet also exhibit the highest level of craftsmanship at court; see a related cloisonné enamel incense burner, first half 16th century, featuring the same gilt-bronze feet and handles but decorated with cranes amidst clouds, illustrated by H.Brinker and A.Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, Zurich, 1989, no.56. See also a related cloisonné enamel incense burner and cover with the similar motif of lotus, Yuan dynasty, illustrated in Ibid., no.9 a similar cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze incense burner, 16th/early 17th century, was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March and Sotheby’s Arts d’Asie June 2022 Paris. |
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