Lot 16. A rare cloisonné and champlevé enamel model of a Buddhist lion on rockwork, 18th century; 21cm (8 1/4in) wide. Estimate HK$350,000-500,000. Sold for HK$ 1,180,000 (€ 140,195). Photo: Bonhams.

Powerfully modelled as a snarling beast standing on an elaborately detailed rockwork issuing flower heads, the head turned to its left with bulging eyes, flaring nostrils and open jaws revealing sharp fangs beneath fierce red eyebrows, its ridged spine ending in a bushy tail held high, the body richly decorated with white florets adorned with a well-defined mane flowing in curls. 

Provenance: Acquired from Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 8 July 1970, and thence by descent
An important European private collection.

Note: Compare a very similar cloisonné and champlevé enamel Buddhist lion group, 17th/18th century, sold at Sotheby's London, 9 October 1967, lot 79 and again at Christie's New York, 20 October 2004, lot 447.

The present group superbly combines the two techniques of champlevé and cloisonné enamel, heightened with gilt around the bronze edges and cloisonné wires. For similar treatment of the swirl-motifs on the lion, see a cloisonné enamel 'deer' incense burner, Qianlong, from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, illustrated by B.Quette, ed., Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, pl.106.

Bonhams. EXCEPTIONAL CHINESE ART FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION, 3 Dec 2015 10:30 HKT - HONG KONG, ADMIRALTY