Lot 75. A rare cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze tripod censer with elephant feet, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century; 8 7/8 in. (22.7 cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 10,000 - GBP 15,000. Price realised GBP 58,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020

The censer is finely decorated in bright enamels with large red, yellow, white, turquoise and blue lotus heads on scrolling leafy stems. It is supported on a gilt bronze stand with three gilt bronze elephant-head feet. Each handle is skillfully cast as a mythical beast, its head turned back over its body, decorated in champleve enamels. The base is cast with a four-character Jingtai mark within a recessed rectangle.

Provenance: Acquired in Germany before 1989.

Note: The current lot may be stylistically compared to the 15th century tripod censer with champleve enamel mythical beast handles and gilt bronze elephant head feet in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass. no. 63.23.150, illustrated in Cloisonne, Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beatrice Quette (Ed.), 2011, no. 123, p.287.