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Lot Essay
Multi-tiered cloisonné braziers or censers of this shape and of this large size appear to be very rare and our present lot pays tribute to the best examples of this kind under the Qianlong's reign.
A similar pair of magnificent imperial braziers, dated Qianlong period, also with rounded sides and elephant-head feet from the Kitson and C. Ruxton & Audrey B. Love collections was sold at Christie's New York, 20 October 2004, lot 354. See another impressive Qianlong brazier which is highly comparable to our present lot, sold at Sotheby's London, 13 May 2009, lot 37. Also compare with a smaller octagonal censer with three sections and less elaborate finial and feet as well as an octagonal three-tiered brazier of smaller size in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Enamels (3) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Beijing and Anhui, 2011, p. 277, no. 238 and p. 279, no. 240 respectively.
During the Qing dynasty, these braziers were decorative art objects of the highest quality, but they were also made to be used. The most convenient form of heating in the Imperial palaces was braziers. Beijing gets very cold in winter and the limited under-floor heating, few stoves and heated kang were not sufficient to keep the inhabitants of the Forbidden City even moderately warm. The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of imperial bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced back at least as far as the Xuande reign (AD 1426 - 35). An example of a censer, bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark, on which the elephants balance on their rolled trunks, as on the current censers, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, p. 199, no. 54. A much smaller (H: 27.8 cm.) cloisonné censer standing on three elephant's heads from the Ming dynasty Jingtai reign (AD 1450 - 56) in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971, no. 3. And cloisonné censers on three gilded elephant heads that still stand at the foot of the steps leading up to the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Beijing Palace are illustrated ibid.., La Cité Interdite, p. 9, fig. 6.
A similar pair of magnificent imperial braziers, dated Qianlong period, also with rounded sides and elephant-head feet from the Kitson and C. Ruxton & Audrey B. Love collections was sold at Christie's New York, 20 October 2004, lot 354. See another impressive Qianlong brazier which is highly comparable to our present lot, sold at Sotheby's London, 13 May 2009, lot 37. Also compare with a smaller octagonal censer with three sections and less elaborate finial and feet as well as an octagonal three-tiered brazier of smaller size in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Enamels (3) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Beijing and Anhui, 2011, p. 277, no. 238 and p. 279, no. 240 respectively.
During the Qing dynasty, these braziers were decorative art objects of the highest quality, but they were also made to be used. The most convenient form of heating in the Imperial palaces was braziers. Beijing gets very cold in winter and the limited under-floor heating, few stoves and heated kang were not sufficient to keep the inhabitants of the Forbidden City even moderately warm. The tradition of using three elephant heads as the feet of imperial bronze censers and braziers at the Beijing Palace can be traced back at least as far as the Xuande reign (AD 1426 - 35). An example of a censer, bearing a six-character Xuande reign mark, on which the elephants balance on their rolled trunks, as on the current censers, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, p. 199, no. 54. A much smaller (H: 27.8 cm.) cloisonné censer standing on three elephant's heads from the Ming dynasty Jingtai reign (AD 1450 - 56) in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Japan, 1971, no. 3. And cloisonné censers on three gilded elephant heads that still stand at the foot of the steps leading up to the imperial throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Beijing Palace are illustrated ibid.., La Cité Interdite, p. 9, fig. 6.