A SET OF THREE CLOISONNÉ CANDLESTICKS, QIANLONG PERIOD, TAKEN DURING THE 1860 SUMMER PALACE RAID China, 1736-1795. The cylindrical body finely decorated in bright enamels with geometrically arranged lotus blossoms borne on scrolling vines against a turquoise ground, surmounted by a gilt-bronze globular mid-section rising to a drip pan decorated with keyfret against a dark-blue ground. (3)

Inscriptions: To the shoulder of the largest candlestick, engraved ‘Summer Palace. Pekin 1860. Alfred Abercromby Dick. Lieut. & Adjt. Probyn’s Horse’.

Provenance: Old Viennese private collection.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear and manufacturing flaws, including expected pitting. Small dents, minor nicks, occasional light scratches. The foot ring (above the gilt-bronze base) and the cup (above the drip pan) and associated screws are British replacements added shortly after 1860.

Weight: 1,520 g
Dimensions: Height 19.8 cm (the largest)

Probyn's Horse: The regiment known as 11^th King Edward's Own Lancers was originally raised on 1 August 1857 by Captain Frederick Wale as Wale’s Horse during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and served at Lucknow. Captain Wale was killed in action in 1858, while leading the regiment in the pursuit of rebels, and was replaced by Major Dighton Probyn, VC. In 1860 the regiment was dispatched to China to take part in the Second Opium War. It participated in the advance on Peking in October 1860.

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French expeditionary forces, having marched inland from the coast at Tianjin, arrived in Beijing. In mid-September, two envoys went ahead of the main force under a flag of truce to negotiate with Prince Yi and representatives of the Qing Empire at Tongzhou and to scout out campsites behind enemy lines. The delegates and their escort were taken to the Ministry of Justice (or Board of Punishments) in Beijing, where they were confined and tortured. Nineteen British, French, and Indian captives died.

On the night of 5 October, French units diverted from the main attack force towards the nearby Old Summer Palace. At the time, the palace was occupied by only some eunuchs and palace maids; the Xianfeng Emperor and his entourage had already fled to the Chengde Mountain Resort in Hebei. Although the French commander Charles Cousin-Montauban assured his British counterpart, James Hope Grant, that “nothing had been touched”, there was extensive looting by French and British soldiers. There was no significant resistance to the looting, even though many Qing soldiers were in the vicinity.

On 18 October, Lord Elgin, the British High Commissioner to China, ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace. It took 3,500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze, and the massive fire lasted for three days. Once the Old Summer Palace had been reduced a sign was raised by the invaders with an inscription in Chinese stating, ‘This is the reward for perfidy and cruelty’. The burning of the palace was the last act of the war.

乾隆時期一套三件銅胎掐絲琺琅燭臺，1860年圓明園被掠
中國，1736-1795年。臺座圓柱體，景泰藍地，纏枝蓮紋；頂部通體鎏金，滴水盤。

款識: 最高的燭臺肩部，刻著“Summer Palace. Pekin 1860. Alfred Abercromby Dick. Lieut. & Adjt. Probyn’s Horse” （圓明園，北京1860，Alfred Abercromby Dick，中尉，普羅賓的馬）

來源：維也納私人老收藏。
品相：狀況極好，有輕微磨損和製造瑕疵，包括預期的點蝕。 小凹痕，輕微劃痕。圈足（鎏金銅底座上方）和聚蠟盤和相關螺絲是 1860 年後不久添加的英國替代品。

重量：1,520 克
尺寸：高19.8 厘米 (最大)