Bonhams 1793 : A magnificent and extremely rare Imperial cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze set of the Eight Buddhist Emblems Qianlong

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24 Nov 2010 10:00 CST Hong Kong
Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
Back to auction 18592

A magnificent and extremely rare Imperial cloisonne enamel and gilt-bronze set of the Eight Buddhist Emblems

Qianlong
All intricately constructed, decorated with cloisonne and champleve enamels, and inset with semi-precious stones on a gilt-bronze ground, comprising: the Wheel of the Law; the Endless Knot; the Parasol; the Victory Banner; the Vase; the Conch; the Paired Fish; and the Lotus, all brilliant enamelled with intricately floral scroll against a rich turquoise-blue ground and inset with semi-precious stones, depicted issuing forth from the ripe green-enamelled fruit of a luxuriant lotus flower with two registers of extended pink enamelled flowers, all supported on a slender gilt-bronze baluster vase-shaped foot flanked by a pair of stylised dragon scroll handles, standing on a two tiered circular base enamelled with lotus flowers above a band of lappets, the foot enamelled with a key-fret border.
(The tallest) 31.7cm high.

Sold for HK$ 6,816,000 inc. premium

Footnotes

清乾隆銅胎掐絲琺瑯八吉祥高足蓮托供品一組八件

It is extremely rare to find a complete set of the Eight Buddhist Emblems (ba jixiang) in cloisonné enamel, and no other complete example appears ever to have been offered for sale at auction. The closest comparable example at auction appears to be an assembled group of seven cloisonné enamel, gilt-bronze and white jade emblems, which included four Buddhist emblems, formerly in the Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, T.B. Kitson and Vint collections, sold Sotheby's London, 21 February 1961, lot 266 and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 December 2008, lot 262.

For a closely related set from the Qing court collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see a set of smaller emblems rendered in gilt-bronze and champlevé enamels, illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware. The Complete Collection of Treaures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2001, pl.139. See also a champlevé enamel set of the Eight Buddhist Emblems preserved in the Mountain Resort Museum, Chengde, illustrated in the National Palace Museum Exhibition, Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World, Taipei, 2010, pl.110.