A HARDSTONE-EMBELLISHED GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A CRANE QING DYNASTY, 18TH – 19TH CENTURY

the crane with its head turned backwards, clutching in its beak a spray of peach, its crown and feather embellished in various hardstones including soapstone, agate and jadeite

In its detailed workmanship this figure is comparable to a qilin censer dated to the Qianlong reign, cast with a funnel-shaped opening at the back, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Incense Burners Throughout the Dynasties, Taipei, 1994, cat. no. 119; Similarly embellished figures include a qilin censer, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Stephen Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. II, London, 1919, fig. 96; a censer of three phoenixes, from the Rothschild family collection, sold in these rooms, 8th October 2009, lot 1734, a ‘double-phoenix’ vessel from the collection of Comte Fitick, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th September 1992, lot 911 and another similar vessel, possibly the pair to the previous, sold at Bonhams London, 6th November 2014, lot 270. Compare also a Qianlong period gilt-bronze and hardstone embellished vase modelled with a standing and a recumbent crane, both similar in style to the present piece, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th April 1996, lot 25.