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A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE 'IMITATION BRONZE' CENSER AND COVER -

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A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE 'IMITATION BRONZE' CENSER AND COVER
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    HK$700,000 - HK$900,000
  • ($90,596 - $116,481)

Sale Information

Sale 2811
The Imperial Sale Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
31 May 2010
Hong Kong Buy Catalog





Lot Description

A FINE AND EXTREMELY RARE 'IMITATION BRONZE' CENSER AND COVER
QIANLONG IMPRESSED SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Of rectangular-section, decorated to each side in relief with taotie masks below a band of stylised animals decorated in imitation of bronze with speckled gilt on a robin's egg-splashed keyfret ground bordered by flanges at each corner and a keyfret band at the rim flanked by two loop handles, all supported on cabriole legs issuing from stylised animal heads, the reticulated cover surmounted by a buddhistic lion finial and similarly decorated with pierced taotie panels
7 7/8 in. (12.6 cm.) high, wood stand, box


清乾隆 仿銅饕餮紋蓋爐 六字篆書印款

爐呈長方形，四角出戟，雙立耳，腹下承四個獸首吞柱足。通體飾古銅釉。蓋壁四面鏤雕饕餮紋，頂飾後首臥犬鈕。爐沿外圖成板沿式，邊沿上下環刻迴紋，腹部四面每面分四格，上兩格飾瑞獸兩個，下兩格飾饕餮紋。腹底四角飾獸首，瞠目隆鼻，口吞象鼻式長足，足上飾迴紋，足底露胎。腹下施銅釉，中方框內印「大清乾隆年製」六字篆書款。

此器造型端正精細，雕工施釉惟肖惟妙，足可亂真，充分顯示出清乾隆時期高超的陶瓷仿古工藝。瀋陽故宮博物院藏有相同的乾隆仿銅饕餮紋蓋爐 (圖一)，為清宮舊藏，原藏北京故宮博物院。

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Pre-Lot Text

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Lot Notes

With the technical advances and virtuosity of porcelain production during the Qianlong period, potters from the official kilns were able to experiment with different ways and techniques to satisfy the emperor's penchant for the curious and archaic. Although the idea of porcelain imitating other materials was not pioneered by the potters during the Qianlong reign, the technique was nevertheless very popular.
The present lot comes from a small group of porcelain wares decorated in imitation of cloisonné and champlevé enamel. A censer of identical form, size and decoration formerly in the Qing Court collection and now in the Shenyang Museum is illuatrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, wanjuan chubanshe, 2007, p. 212 (fig. 1). The same catalogue illustrates a number of other closely related vessels in imitation of bronze in the Shenyang Museum collection (see ibid. pp. 211-215).

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