An Extremely Rare and Important Pair of Chinese Export Elephant-form Tureens, Covers and Stands, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1770 | 清乾隆 約1770年 粉彩描金胡人瑞象湯盆連托盤一對

Property of an Important Midwestern Collection

An Extremely Rare and Important Pair of Chinese Export Elephant-form Tureens, Covers and Stands

Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1770

清乾隆 約1770年 粉彩描金胡人瑞象湯盆連托盤一對

each tureen delicately modeled as a recumbent elephant with the head turned to one side tucked snugly into the body with the trunk coiled, molded overall with naturalistic folds in the hide, the cover surmounted by a finial in the form of a European man wearing a long purple coat and tricorn hat, kneeling atop a purple-edged iron-red saddle highlighted with gilding extending down the sides of the elephant, the lobed oval stand painted in the center with a similarly dressed European holding a whip sat astride a recumbent elephant in landscape within an iron-red and gilt border

length of tureen 6 3/8 in.; 16.2 cm