Details
31 cm. (1214 in.) high
Provenance
With Partridge Fine Art, London.
Christie's London, Mackinnon: Fine Furniture and Works of Art, 10 November 2021, lot 13.
Literature
Partridge Fine Arts Plc., Furniture, Silver and Works of Art, Partridge Fine Arts PLC, London, 2004, pp. 104-105.
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Lot Essay

The elephant symbolizes strength, wisdom, and intelligence, while the vase represents eternal harmony. Together, they form the auspicious rebus taiping youxiang, conveying the wish for “peaceful times” or “signs of peace.” A pair of cloisonné enamel caparisoned elephants of similar colouring and design, each supporting a vase, can be seen flanking a throne in a photograph of the Eastern Warm Chamber of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, where the Empress Dowager Cixi received ministers in audience, illustrated in Wan Yi et al., Daily Life in the Forbidden City, New York, 1988, p. 64, pl. 86. For a closely related pair of white cloisonné enamel elephants, also dated to the Jiaqing period, see Christie’s London, 14 May 2019, lot 112.

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