Details
**A BAMBOO, IVORY, BONE, AND METAL BIRDCAGE
19th century
The hexagonal cover with domed top constructed of slender bone bars piercing horizontal stained bamboo stretchers, fitting into the stained bamboo hexagonal base carved with diaper pattern bands at the upper and lower edges, and inset with alternating carved flattened oval and lozenge-shaped reticulated ivory panels in the center, the panels each inventively and amusingly carved with peonies, crab, fish, and shrimp, scholars in landscape settings, and songbirds, all above a diaper-pattern-carved stained bamboo stretcher separated from the base by small ivory coin-shaped and rectangular struts, set on four half moon-shaped supports, each individually carved with scenes of a dragon, deer, and monkeys in a forest, courtly figures playing chess in a garden, songbirds in a flowering tree, and an underwater scene of
crab, shrimp, fish, and frogs, the interior of the cage outfitted with a bamboo and bone low gallery, two plaster 'twig' perches, a carved ivory pedestal, a hanging ivory ring, two mounted porcelain water vases, two Canton enamel oval bird feeders, and small ivory openwork carvings of shou and xuangxi (double happiness) characters, the cage and base secured by four engraved silvered-copper spring clips, the whole mounted with an ivory finial and an elaborate metal superstructure and hanging hook
29¼in. (74.3cm.) high
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