Pair of cloisonné enamel incense burners China...

Pair of cloisonné enamel incense burners China Early 19th century Cloisonné enamel, gilded bronze Height: 29 cm; Diameter: 18 cm A rare pair of Chinese polychrome cloisonné enamel pots with ormolu mounts. The body is covered with geometric partitions and flower and butterfly ornaments, resting on a tripod base with elephant heads. The whole is crowned by a gilded bronze lid with a ying-long dragon in high relief, set on a hoop, whose handles are formed by jiao-long dragons. Minor enamel defects, wear. Take a good look at the photographs. Commentary: The cloisonné enamel technique was introduced and developed in China in the early 15th century. It consists in placing partitions on a bronze core to form cells where the enamels are applied. After glaze firing and sanding, the bronze parts are gilded. The first Chinese cloisonné pieces under the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) came from imperial commissions for Tibetan worship. The colors of the enamels - turquoise and lapis lazuli blue, black, white and green - are bold. In the 16th century, the color palette expanded from pinks to purples, light browns and nuanced greens, and plant and animal representations reflected the Taoist influence. Utilitarian and decorative objects in cloisonné enamel and gilded bronze include yenyen, hu, gu and zun vases, double-gourds, basins, incense burners, aquariums, furniture (tables, screens and screens), plates, bowls, plates and even animals. In the 18th century, new techniques enabled the creation of larger and larger objects, with greater precision and detail. In the 19th century, following the Franco-English military campaign against the imperial army in China in 1860, Napoleon III's French troops brought back from the Summer Palace some of the treasures of the Chinese imperial court, forming the famous Musée Chinois de l'impératrice Eugénie at the Palais de Fontainebleau in 1863. The craze for Chinese cloisonné was unprecedented in Europe.