A rare Imperial cloisonné enamel tripod incense burner, lian

Incised Qianlong four-character mark and ben character and of the period

Footnotes

清乾隆 銅胎掐絲琺瑯纏枝蓮紋奩式三足爐
陰刻「乾隆年製」、「本」楷書款

Provenance:
An English private collection

來源：
英國私人收藏

The present lot is inspired in form from the Han dynasty tripod circular ritual vessels known as lian. An example of such early piece was excavated in 1962 at Shanxi Province, illustrated in The Genius of China: An Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China, London, 1973, no.175. The archaistic form is consistent with the Qianlong Emperor's fascination with antiquity and his concerns with drawing moral strength and righteousness from the early periods by emulating similar forms and designs.

The incense burner belongs to a group of gilt-bronze and cloisonne enamel works of art with incised Qianlong kaishu marks and an additional single-character kaishu mark, known as the 'Thousand-Character Classics' or Qian Zi Wen. It has been suggested that the additional character could relate to numbering, designation of location, or set numbering; see H.Brinker and A.Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989, pp.74-79.

Compare a very similar cloisonné enamel tripod incense burner, lian, Qianlong four-character mark and of the period, similarly incised with an additional character bi, in the Brian S. McElney Collection, illustrated by B.Till and P.Swart, Antique Chinese Cloisonné, Victoria, 1983, no.31.

A similar cloisonné enamel incense burner, lian, Qianlong incised mark and period, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 November 2014, lot 2916; see also a related cloisonné enamel incense burner, lian, Qianlong cast mark and period, but decorated with taotie masks, which was sold at Christie's London, 6 November 2012, lot 46.

此爐呈奩式，器形仿自漢代酒器，如1962年山西省右玉縣大川村出土銅溫酒樽，見《中華人民共和國出土文物展覽》，倫敦，1973年，編號175。乾隆時期的銅胎掐絲琺瑯器，受乾隆帝慕古之風，出現很多仿古及仿生造型。此奩式爐工藝精湛，造型古樸，為乾隆時期銅胎掐絲琺瑯仿古器中不可多得一佳例。

乾隆時期御製銅胎掐絲琺瑯器除鐫刻紀年款外，還會出現附加刻字款，俗稱千字文款。其用意可能是用來區別御用銅胎琺瑯器最初在各個宮殿、園囿的擺放位置，或在同一宮殿中不同的擺放位置。亦有學者指出是當時宮廷造辦處用於標記成對或成組器物的款識，見H.Brinker 及A.Lutz著，Chinese Cloisonne: The Pierre Uldry Collection》，倫敦，1989年，頁74-79。

參看一件Brian S.McElney舊藏清乾隆銅胎掐絲琺瑯奩式爐，刻「必」字款，器形及紋飾與此爐極其相似，見B.Till 及P.Swart，《Antique Chinese Cloisonné》，維多利亞，1983年，圖31。香港佳士得曾售出類似一例，2014年11月26日，拍品編號2916；另見倫敦佳士得曾售出一件清乾隆獸面紋奩式爐，2012年11月6日，拍品編號46。