A cloisonné gilt bronze incense burner and cover18th/19th centuryRaised atop colorfully-caparisoned gilt elephant head legs and supporting opposing elephant-head handles, the cloisonné body displaying elaborate vine and lotus patterns and concentric lotus petal bands, supporting a domed cover reticulated in further lotus flowers and leafy tendrils all surmounted by a gilt and elaborately enameled elephant supporting a separately cast vase of smoke tendrils and a curled dragon. 17 1/2in (44.5cm) high注脚ProvenanceButterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco SOMA sale 16 December 2001, lot 4673Incense burners of very similar shape have been offered in these rooms several times. See for example the cast bronze versions offered as lot 171 in sale 24904 of 26 June 2018 and as lot 267 in sale 24948 of 17 December 2018. Unlike those bronze versions however, various aspects of the cloisonné decoration here suggest the possibility that older pieces of cloisonné were assembled together to create the present lot in its current form - a process shared with many of the finer examples of cloisonné in the Beijing and Taipei palace collections. See Li Jiufang et al, Jinshu Tai Falang Qi [Metal-bodied Enamel Ware]: Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji [The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum] (Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2002), pp 2-3 and 10-11, cat. no. 1, 2, 8 and 9 for just a few of the examples with Yuan or Early Ming dates but where it is noted that the Qing imperial ateliers added marks, bases and handles or even re-assembled previously unrelated whole halves or large areas of enamels.