A small cloisonne enamel oval vessel with jade cover
The base of the vessel is made of cloisonné enamel, decorated with a continuous scroll of lotus blooms of different colours, borne on scroll leaf stems on a turquoise ground, beneath a blue ruyi head border. The low foot is of conforming shape, decorated with a scroll on a turquoise ground. The base is gilded. The rim has a short upright flange for securing the cover made of white jade, carved on the domed top with archaistic scrollwork around a ring-shaped oval knop.
Provenance:
Collection of Professor Brian M. Salzberg, purchased c. 1972
For another example of a small cloisonné enamel oval vessel with jade cover, see Bonhams New York, 21st March 2022, lot 212.
As intriguing as it is rare, this item is open to different interpretations, being perhaps a cloisonné vessel that lost its top and had a jade cover made, or a jade cover that lost its body and had a cloisonné base made, or perhaps – though less likely – a fortunate marriage. Both jade and cloisonné enamel wares were made at the Imperial workshops, the Zaobanchu, in the Forbidden City, so a commission would not have had far to travel.
The admirable practice of rescuing and repurposing valuable works of art has a long history in China, extending back at least to the Zhou dynasty (1050 – 221 BC) when Neolithic jades, or parts of them, were often recarved to make items suitable to contemporary taste.
Dimensions: Length: 8.3 cm, 3¼ inches
Date: Qing dynasty (1644-1911), 18th century
Stock No. 2383
Price: On Request