Object of the Month - Canton Enamel Candlesticks
1st November 2023
While the influence of Chinese Art on Western culture is well documented, this unusual pair of Chinese Canton enamel candle holders are a rare example of Western art influencing objects in the Far East.
They were made in the first half of the 18th century, a time when French missionaries were introducing enamel techniques perfected in Limoges some 300 years previously. The surface allowed for more controlled and therefore finer detailed decoration by artists used to working on porcelain.
The shape directly copies a 17th century glass prototype by Bernard Perrot (1619-1709), who worked in the Royal glass workshops of Orléans. Examples of Perrot’s work are known to have been gifted to Siamese ambassadors, and his work is likely to have travelled to the Far East through traders with the East India Company.
The dolphins (a common motif in European art and chattels throughout the 17th and 18th centuries) have taken on a more mythical and fearsome appearance; their scales finely detailed in shades of blue, green and gilt. The elaborate double sconces feature scrolled peony flowers in the famille rose palette. This use of pink enamel is another Western export and begins to be seen in China for the first time around 1720, coinciding with the start of the reign of the Yongzheng emperor.
Expanding on the scalloped drip pans of the glass original, these holders feature lotus-petal pans similar to those seen on a related pair of Canton enamel candlesticks in the form of lions, which are illustrated in J A Lloyd-Hyde’s Chinese Painted Enamels. The shape is otherwise unrecorded.
Part of the Fine Asian Art auction on Tuesday 14th November, they sold for £40,320 (lot 132).
