Lot 51. A gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel elephant, 18th-19th century; 30.8cm (12 1/8in) high. Estimate: 80,000 - 120,000 HKD. Sold for HK$ 137,500 (€ 16,371). Photo Bonhams.

Beautifully cast standing with its head turned right, the white body fastened with brightly enamelled trappings and a saddle cloth, decorated on each side with a beribboned chime above rockwork and cresting waves, with a saddle and a tall tapered double-gourd vase on the animal's back, the vase with a ribbon tied at the waist, decorated with leafy stylised lotus between bands of ruyi-heads. 

Note: Compare a pair of gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel elephants also with double-gourd vases, illustrated by H.Brinker and A.Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, no.332. See also, a pair of cloisonné enamel white elephants each with a faceted daji double-gourd vase, Qianlong, illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum. The Enamel Volume, Shenyang, 2007, pp.96-97, no.7.

The elephant in China is one of the seven Buddhist Sacred Treasures and symbolises peace. The combination of an elephant 象 xiang and a vase 瓶 ping, is a reference to 'peaceful times' 太平有象 taiping youxiang, making pairs of elephants carrying vases, an important part of the imperial throne regalia, as can be seen for example in the 太和殿 Taihe Dian, Hall of Supreme Harmony and the 養心殿 Yangxin Dian, Hall of Mental Cultivation; see Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda, The Palace Museum Peking: Treasures of the Forbidden City, London, 1982, pp.44-45 and 64-65. See also the powerful symbolism as demonstrated in a detail from the imperial court painting 'Ten Thousand Envoys Come to Pay Tribute', 1761, showing a tribute of an elephant carrying a vase, illustrated in C.Ho and B.Bronson, Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of the Emperor Qianlong, London, 2004, pl.82.