Lot 28. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'crane' dish, Ming dynasty, 16th century. Diameter 16.8 cm. Lot Sold 3,810 EUR (Estimate 2,000 - 4,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no. 8.

Note: Compare a similar sized 'crane by rocks' dish in the Pierre Uldry Collection, included in the exhibition Chinesisches Cloisonné. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 1985, cat. no. 52.

Lot 29. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A rare cloisonné enamel 'floral' gu-form vase, Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century. Height 26 cm. Lot Sold 95,250 EUR (Estimate 10,000 - 20,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no. 7.

Note: The present vase derives its shape from bronze beakers produced as ritual wine vessels in the late Shang and Zhou dynasties. While the original purpose and inspiration behind this slender fluting form has been lost to history, first emerging in China’s illiterate prehistory, the gu soon developed a close association with the royalty, power, and the importance of ritual propriety in the Confucian canon. 

By the Ming dynasty, scholar-officials and emperors had returned to these ancient forms as symbols of China’s illustrious past and scholarly refinement. While their initial use as ritual vessels had mostly subsided, these bronze forms took on new purposes as flower vases, censers and decorative objects in their own right. The present form, for example, was given the moniker huagu (flower gu) and redesignated as a desirable form for flower arrangements; a role supported by its lush floral enameling. For another 15th century cloisonné interpretation of a Shang ritual vessel, compare a vessel in the form of a tripod ding redesigned as a censer, included in Recasting the Past: The Art of Chinese Bronzes, 1100-1900, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2025, cat. no. 78; and a later parcel-gilt interpretation of the gu form, produced by the famous workshop of Hu Wenming around 1599, ibid., cat. no. 107.

Lot 30. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'lotus' bowl, Ming dynasty, 15th century. Diameter 14.6 cm. Lot Sold 8,890 EUR (Estimate 2,000 - 4,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no. 4.

Lot 31. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A  gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel 'lotus' candlestick, Ming dynasty, 16th century. Height 31 cm. Lot Sold 7,620 EUR (Estimate 6,000 - 8,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no. 31.

Lot 35. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'lotus and mythical beast' bowl, Ming dynasty, 16th century. Diameter 15 cm. Lot Sold 5,080 EUR (Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Note: Compare a related bowl dated mid-16th century with lions on interior and lotus on exterior, published in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pl. 8.

Lot 37. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'floral' lobed tripod dish, Mark and period of Wanli (1573-1620). Diameter 19.8 cm. Lot Sold 91,440 EUR (Estimate 4,000 - 6,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

the base with a six-character mark within a rectangle.

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no 32.

Note: Compare a similarly Wanli marked floriate dish, decorated with confronting dragons around a central medallion in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pl. 11; and another unmarked example supported by three human figures in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels, vol. I, Beijing, 2011, pl. 109.

Lot 38. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'lotus and horse' bowl, Ming dynasty, ca 1500. Diameter 19.5 cm. Lot Sold 24,130 EUR (Estimate 5,000 - 8,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no 12.

Lot 40. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'lotus' vase, Ming dynasty, 16th century. Height 18.5 cm. Lot Sold 3,510 EUR (Estimate 1,200 - 1,800 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Lot 49. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'lion' bowl and a 'chilong' tripod dish, Ming dynasty. Height 18.5 cm. Lot Sold 8,890 EUR (Estimate 2,000 - 4,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Note: Compare a related bowl with lions on interior and lotus on exterior, published in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1999, pl. 8; and another with lions on the exterior, dated to the first half of the 16th century in Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1962, pl. 31B.

Lot 48. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A cloisonné enamel 'crane' vase (Fanghu), 17th century. Height 30.5 cm. Lot Sold 3,810 EUR (Estimate 3,000 - 5,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no 40 .

Note: Compare a closely related early Qing example of this type, decorated with birds flowers and mythical beasts, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Enamels 2: Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pl. 30; and another dated to the first half of the 17th century in Harry Garner, Chinese and Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, London, 1962, pl. 53.

Lot 32. Property from an Important European Private Collection. Two cloisonné enamels incense burners and a lobed jardinière, Late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century. Length of longest 19.1 cm. Lot Sold 15,240 EUR (Estimate 6,000 - 10,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. nos. 16 &and 21.

Lot 44. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A large cloisonné enamel 'lotus' charger and a 'lion' deep bowl, Ming and Qing dynasties. Diameter 22.2 cm (bowl) ; 46.5 cm (charger). Lot Sold 3,810 EUR (Estimate 3,000 - 5,000 EUR) © ​​​​​​​Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. nos. 16 &and 18 (bowl).

Lot 36. Property from an Important European Private Collection. Two cloisonné enamels 'lotus' tripod censers, 17th-18th century. Height of taller 12 cm. Lot Sold 4,620 EUR (Estimate 5,000 - 8,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Lot 50. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel 'lotus' offering stand, Late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century. Diameter 26.6 cm. Lot Sold 48,260 EUR (Estimate 8,000 - 12,000 EUR) © ​​​​​​​Sotheby's 2025

Exhibited: Die Ware aus dem Teufelsland, Chinesische und japanische Cloisonné – und Champlevé-Arbeiten von 1400 bis 1900, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, 1981, cat. no. 2.

Sotheby's. Art d'Asie, 12 June 2025