A pair of mandarin ducks is a Chinese emblem of conjugal fidelity, the birds said to pine if separated. The Qing workshop modelled one in cloisonne and hol…
Cloisonne mandarin-duck form incense burner Read More »
A backgammon board is the last object you expect to find in cloisonne, yet here it is, its playing surface enamelled with lion roundels and scrolling groun…
Cloisonne backgammon board with lion roundels Read More »
Two elephants lift this censer by the handles, trunks curled, as if offering the vessel upward. The Qing imperial workshop took the Ming cloisonne vocabula…
Cloisonne ‘Interlocking Lotus’ censer with elephant handles Read More »
A candlestick is a humble thing asked to do cloakroom work for a palace. The Wanli workshop answered with this: a gardenia in bloom, petals and leaves rend…
Wanli-mark cloisonne gardenia candlestick Read More »
A luduan is a beast that does not exist, a horned, maned creature said to walk a thousand miles a day and know the speech of every nation. The Wanli court…
Wanli-mark cloisonne luduan incense burner Read More »
The Jiajing reign ran for forty-five years, longer than most, and its workshops produced cloisonne in quantity and colour. This plate sets a dragon and a p…
Jiajing-mark cloisonne ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ plate Read More »
Two dragons crouch at the shoulders of this Jingtai-mark vase, gripping the neck so the vessel can be carried. Below them runs the interlocking lotus that…
Jingtai-mark cloisonne ‘Interlocking Lotus’ vase with dragon handles Read More »
This zun takes its name from the Jingtai reign, and that matters. The Jingtai emperor ruled for only eight years in the mid fifteenth century, yet his reig…
Jingtai-mark cloisonne ‘Interlocking Lotus’ zun with beast handles Read More »
The Xuande emperor’s court built this beaker in copper and glass rather than bronze. It is a gu, an ancient ritual shape, here remade in cloisonne, the cra…
Xuande-mark cloisonne ‘Interlocking Lotus’ gu beaker Read More »
A single branch of peach blossom, painted by an unknown Southern Song hand, is all the argument this leaf needs.
Green Peach Blossoms (碧桃图页) Read More »
