Lot 53. A rare imperial champlevé and cloisonné enamel gilt-bronze archaistic three-piece altar set, Qianlong period (1736-1795). Ding with cover: 27cm (10 5/8in) high; each gu: 25.7cm (10 1/8in) high. Estimate: 240,000 - 300,000 HKD. Sold for HK$ 312,500 (€ 37,208). Photo Bonhams.

The tripod incense burner, ding, raised on three bulbous feet, each issuing from the jaw of a qilin, elaborately decorated in champlevé around the globular body, with bands of archaistic scrolls above a band of pendent leaves and below a band of gilt archaistic dragons in relief at the mouth rim, the shoulders flanked by a pair of curved handles rising from upturned mythical beast heads, the pierced cover decorated in cloisonné enamel with stylised lotus sprays surmounted with a reticulated knop of floral sprays; together with a pair of gu vases, each with a compressed globular mid-section decorated with colourful archaic scrolls, rising to a wide flaring neck, cast with four vertical rows of notched flanges within concentric slender leaf lappets and key-fret bands in vivid yellow, dark blue, pink and turquoise enamels, with a circular cover with four apertures on a ground of leafy floral motifs. 

Note: Champlevé enamel and cloisonné enamel are two separate techniques that are used for applying enamel on metal objects. In the former, hollows or grooves are created in the surface of the object and are then infilled with enamel paste. For the latter, enamel is infilled in areas partitioned by soldered wires. The rare combination of these two techniques used on a single piece, such as on the present tripod incense burner, would have been expensive and challenging to produce.

This type of creative ingenuity of combining different techniques and the successful execution of this, reflects the manner in which the arts flourished under the Qianlong emperor's reign during the 18th century. The present garniture is a particularly fine example of the depth of the enamels and the solidity of construction, characteristic of 18th century imperial wares.

Compare a similar cloisonné enamel incense burner and cover, mid-Qing dynasty, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels 3, Beijing, 2011, pl.171. See also a related gilt-decorated cloisonné and champlevé enamel ritual vessel, jia, Qianlong, illustrated in Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace. Special Catalogue to Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Palace Museum, Macao, 2005, pl.25.

A related rare imperial champlevé and gilt-bronze archaistic vase, hu, Qianlong, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2013, lot 2068. A single similar cloisonné and champlevé enamel tripod incense burner and cover, 18th century, sold in our London rooms, 12 May 2011, lot 439.