A CLOISONNE ENAMEL TRIPOD CENSER AND COVER QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

heavily cast with deep rounded sides supported on three gilt-bronze elephant-head feet, each with long tusks and bejewelled harnesses, flanked at the sides by a pair of upright angular handles, the body decorated in bright cloisonné enamels with geometric strapwork patterns between a band of confronting kui dragons under the rim and florets below and on the underside, the cover with an intricately cast gilt openwork with dense scrolling lotus blooms, surrounded by three stylised lotus blooms borne on leafy scrolls alternating with geometric strapwork below bats, surmounted by a xiezhai displaying a ferocious facial expression 

The present censer represents the high level of artistic and technical achievement of enamel craftsmanship during the Qianlong period.  The censer was either made in the Cloisonné Enamel Workshop within the Zaobanchu (Imperial Palace Workshop) located in the Forbidden City or was a tributary item made for the Emperor in Guangzhou. 

Censers of this type were made for altar sets placed in the Buddhist temples and palaces in the Forbidden City.  See a five piece altar set in situ in the Qianqing Gong (Mansion of Heavenly Purity), illustrated in Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Splendours of China's Forbidden City, Chicago, 2004, fig.32.  See a related censer with similar openwork found on the cover but with carp-form handles, in the Phoenix Art Museum, illustrated in Chinese Cloisonné . The Clague Collection, Phoenix, 1980, pl.43.