82
A very fine and rare cloisonné enamel incense burner (fangding)
18th century
Height: 15 1/4 in, 38.7 cm

of rectangular section with straight, flared sides turning inwards at the shoulder and terminating in an upright gilt rim decorated with scrolls in raised relief, all supported on four zoomorphic legs. Two handles, each superbly cast and chased in the form of a coiled archaistic dragon, are set on the shorter sides, and the four corners are set with pierced gilt flanges, also fashioned as archaistic scrolling dragons. The longer sides are decorated with two fish above waves confronting an elaborate design formed of bird-like creatures sharing a body and suspending interlocking rings, scrolls and tassels; the shorter sides show a simplified design of two fish above waves and scrolls. A band of lotus lappet surrounds the shoulder. The base is decorated with a bold, fifteenth-century style medallion of a lotus seed pod surrounded by leaves from which further leafy tendrils issue, and the legs, probably also representing fish, with flowers, scrolls and chevrons. The domed cover, surmounted by an openwork gilt-bronze knop in the form of a coiled dragon twisting amid clouds above waves, is formed of four reticulated gilt-bronze panels of confronting dragons amid clouds, all with chased details, flanking a shou (long-life) character. The cloisonné enamel framework is decorated with scrolling ruyi heads, and a band of lotus lappet encircles the knop. Four gilt flanges, again in the form of archaistic dragons, embellish the corners. This censer is of imperial quality, and is extremely rare with seemingly no published parallel example.

For a Xuande mark and period disc decorated with a similar lotus seed pod medallion to that on the base of the censer, see Brinker and Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, no. 1; and see also no. 234, for a pilgrim flask with similar but less elaborate gilt handles.