A large famille-rose figure of a caparisoned elephant, Qing dynasty, Qianlong / Jiaqing period | 清乾隆 / 嘉慶 粉彩「太平有象」擺件

This elephant figure would have originally carried a vase on its back, forming the rebus taiping youxiang ('peaceful times'). Compare a pair of elephants of similar size and modeling: one sold at Christie's London, 31st October 1977, lot 85, and the other sold in these rooms, 20th-22nd April 2018, lot 1058. See also two examples illustrated in Xu Huping ed., Treasures in the royalty: the official kiln porcelain of the Chinese Qing dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pp 286-287, and a pair published in William R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Milan, 1991, pl. 94. A further pair sold most recently at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th May 2022, lot 2872.