A pair of champlevé enamel and gilt-bronze jardinières, Seal Marks and Period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 銅鏨胎琺瑯纏枝蓮紋盆景盆一對 《大清乾隆年製》款

Canadian Private Collection, acquired before the mid-1990s, and thence by descent.

加拿大私人收藏，得於1990年代中期之前，此後家族傳承

This pair of jardinières was probably made for jade and hardstone or cloisonné plants such as the pair sold in our London rooms, 14th November 2000, lot 29, which were of round form with champlevé enamel decorated with shou and wufu motifs.

Elaborately embellished life-like plants in ornate jardinières (penjing) were made during Qing dynasty as interior decorations. Champlevé wares were manufactured in Guangzhou during the Qianlong period, as discussed in Tributes from Guangdong to the Qing Court, Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 54, where the authors explain how the 'flourishment of champlevé enamels in Guangzhou was closely linked to the needs of the imperial household and was stimulated by the new foreign champlevé techniques'. Penjing plants with champlevé jardinières were also documented to have been typically made in the Yangzhou area.

Another related example sold in these rooms, 18th June 1980, lot 9. A similar one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th May 2013, lot 2168. Identically cast Qianlong six-character seal marks within a double square can be found on cloisonné wares of the period.