Cloisonné quail censers
Category
Metalwork
Date
circa 1750 - circa 1850
Materials
Cloisonné enamel and gilt bronze
Measurements
165 mm (Height)
Place of origin
China
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 433471
Summary
Cloisonné enamel and gilt bronze censers, Chinese, c.1750-1850. A pair of cloisonné enamel censers in the shape of quails with gilt bronze feet, beaks and eyes. Quails look to the right and left, with white bodies and wing-tip feathers coloured maroon, dark blue, grey and yellow. The wings form a detachable cover; incense is placed in the body of the quail and smoke releases from the open beak.
Full description
The censers were made for the European export market. They are examples of ‘Chinoiserie’, a Chinese-style of decoration which became fashionable as Europe’s trading links with the East expanded from the late 17th century. As with tea-drinking, the ritual of incense burning required the appropriate mise-en-scène using luxury objects imported from China. Wealthy and aristocratic families like the Brownlows of Belton often installed a ‘Chinese’ room in their country houses, decorated with Chinoiserie wallpaper, textiles and decorative objects such as these quail-shaped censers. Alice Rylance-Watson October 2018
Provenance
Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1994)