AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE IMPERIAL ENAMELED COPPER HANDWARMER, QIANLONG MARK AND PERIOD
China, (1736-1795). Each side of the vessel is painted intricately with long tailed birds and butterflies in ornate gardens with rockwork, shrubs and flowers, within pink kuilong-bordered panels surrounded by peony, prunus, and lotus blossoms, all reserved on a pale lilac ground, the neck with a key-fret band.

The pierced copper-repoussé lid is finely enameled and gilt with a central shou character in openwork among colorful clouds, the sides with shaped panels enclosing floral splays reserved against a brocade diapered ground. To the short sides, movable and hinged gilt-bronze overhanging handles.

The interior with rich turquoise enamel. The recessed base with a six-character seal mark in blue enamel da Qing Qianlong nianzhi and of the period.


Provenance:
From a private estate in Belgium, formerly in the collection of Paul Doumer. The base inscribed with an old collector’s number ‘196.’ Joseph Athanase Doumer (1857-1932), commonly known as Paul Doumer, was the President of France from 13 June 1931 until his assassination on 7 May 1932. He was Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902, and successfully lobbied the French government to approve construction of the Indochina-Yunnan railway in 1898. He served as Minister of Finance of France three times and as President of the French Senate from 1927 until the 1931 presidential election, which he won.

Condition:
Absolutely original and unrestored condition. Only minor old wear and expected manufacturing irregularities. Minor losses to enamels, mostly on the cover. Slight warping, light scratches, and a few fine and hardly visible hairlines. The condition is very well visible on the images, with no hidden damages whatsoever. The bronze fittings with a good natural patina. Overall exceptionally well preserved, especially given its age, fragility and rarity.

Weight: 526 g
Dimensions: Length 14 cm


Expert’s note:


Without question a masterpiece of Chinese 18th century enameling
, this handwarmer exemplifies the softness and elegance achieved on the finest of enameled copper wares produced at the Palace workshops during the first half of the Qianlong reign. The delicacy in the use of the enamels is a key feature of the Palace workshops, allowing for considerable subtlety of expression. The brilliant, more opaque enamels used for the decorative borders in contrast to the softer main subject, demonstrate the range of possibilities available to Court artists. Of the two main Palace painted enamel arts (on glass and on copper), those on copper are more frequent. During the Qianlong reign enameled copper wares, including snuff bottles, ran into the thousands, whereas enameled glass wares were produced only in the low hundreds. Handwarmers, however, were never produced in glass, and therefore must be considered as exceedingly rare, although made from copper.


A rough estimate of the total number
of enameled copper handwarmers produced during the Qianlong reign comes to less than one hundred, of which only few remain in private hands to this day. This is mainly due to the greater difficulty of producing them successfully, the need for multiple firings to correctly mature different colors and layers of enamel, and the much higher failure rate during production, due to the complex firing and re-firing process necessary to create the enameled openwork copper-repoussé cover. It was probably for this reason that the Imperial records also show that the Emperor only rarely distributed enameled openwork copper wares as gifts, preferring to keep most of them for Imperial use, while gifts of standard enameled metal wares were apparently quite frequent.


Literature comparison:

Compare a closely related enamel handwarmer, also with a Qianlong mark and of the period, 14 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 24.80.473a, b. Compare a related painted enamel handwarmer, dated to the Qianlong period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, accession number Gu 00116721. Compare a related painted enamel handwarmer, dated to the mid-Qing dynasty, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, accession number Gu 00116718. Compare a related painted enamel handwarmer, dated to the Qianlong period, in the Palace Museum, Taipei, image number K1E000234N000000000PAB.


Auction result comparison:

Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s, New York, 30 March 2005, lot 158
Price: USD 36,000 or approx.
EUR 51,500
adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare painted enamel quadrilobed handwarmer, Qianlong six-character seal mark in ruby-red enamel within a square and of the period (1736-1795)
Expert remark: Compare the related enameled decoration, form, and Qianlong reign mark. Note the size (16.2 cm)


Auction result comparison:

Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 20 November 2006, lot 6241
Price: USD 35,850 or approx.
EUR 49,000
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A fine canton enamel bronze hand warmer, Qianlong mark and period
Expert remark: Compare the related enameled decoration, form, and Qianlong reign mark. Note the size (16.5 cm)




乾隆款及年代銅胎琺瑯開光花卉手爐


中國，1736-1795年。手爐爐身滿繪纏枝花卉，四面開光，開光内繪製花鳥蝴蝶圖，園中假山灌木。頸部回字紋。銅爐蓋鏤空，中央壽字紋，周圍是彩色的雲朵，側面錦地開光，周圍有花朵圖案。鉸接鎏金銅懸垂手柄。

爐內施艷麗的松石綠琺瑯。底座内凹，白色地藍釉六字篆書款“大清乾隆年製“。


來源：
來自比利時的一處私人莊園，Paul Doumer 收藏。底座上刻有一位老收藏家的編號“196”。Joseph Athanase Doumer（1857-1932 年)，也叫Paul Doumer，自1931 年6 月13日起擔任法國總統，直至1932 年5 月7 日遇刺身亡。1897年至1902年間法屬印度支那總督，並於1898年成功遊說法國政府批准修建印度支那至雲南鐵路。他三度擔任法國財政部長，並從1927年至1931年總統選舉期間擔任法國參議院議長。

品相：
絕對原始且未修復的狀態。只有輕微的磨損和預期的製造缺陷。琺瑯有輕微損失，大部分在蓋子上。輕微翹曲、輕微劃痕和一些細小且幾乎看不見的冲線。沒有任何隱藏的損壞。執柄有包漿。 總體而言，保存得非常完好。

重量：526 克
尺寸：長14 厘米


專家注釋：
毫無疑問，這是中國十八世紀琺瑯工藝的傑作之一，這款暖手器體現了乾隆上半葉宮廷作坊生產的精美的琺瑯銅器所達到的優雅品質。 琺瑯的精緻是宮殿作坊的一個主要特點。 用於裝飾邊框的明亮且不透明的琺瑯與較柔和的主體形成鮮明對比，展示了宮廷藝術家可用的各種可能性。 在兩種主要的宮廷畫琺瑯藝術（玻璃畫和銅畫）中，銅畫琺瑯更為常見。 乾隆年間，琺瑯銅器（包括鼻煙壺）數量達到數千件，而琺瑯玻璃器僅生產數百件。 然而，暖手器從來都不是用玻璃製成的，而且是用銅製成的。


粗略估計，乾隆年間生產的琺瑯銅暖手器總數不足百件
，至今僅有極少數留在私人手中。 這主要是因為生產難度大，需要多次燒製，且製造過程需要復雜的燒製和重新燒製過程。皇室的記錄也顯示，皇帝很少贈送琺瑯透雕銅器作為禮物，而大部分都留作皇家使用，而標準琺瑯金屬器的饋贈是相當頻繁的。


文獻比較：


比較一件非常相近的乾隆款及年代琺瑯手爐，長14 釐米，收藏於大都會藝術博物館，館藏編號24.80.473a，b。比較一件相近的乾隆款及年代琺瑯手爐，收藏於北京故宮博物院，館藏編號Gu 00116721。比較一件相近的清代中期琺瑯手爐，收藏於北京故宮博物院，館藏編號Gu 00116718。比較一件相近的乾隆琺瑯手爐，收藏於台北故宮博物館，影像編號K1E000234N000000000PAB。


拍賣結果比較：

形制：相近
拍賣：紐約佳士得，2005年3月30日，lot 158
價格：USD 36,000（相當於今日
EUR 51,500
）
描述：乾隆款及年代四葉琺瑯手爐
專家評論：比較相近的琺瑯裝飾 、外形和乾隆款。請注意尺寸 (16.2 釐米) 。


拍賣結果比較：

形制：相近
拍賣：紐約邦瀚斯，2006年11月20日，lot 6241
價格：USD 35,850（相當於今日
EUR 49,000
）
描述：乾隆款及年代銅胎琺瑯掐絲手爐
專家評論：比較相近的琺瑯裝飾 、外形和乾隆款。請注意尺寸 (16.5 釐米)。