The beast with peach-colored wrinkles and wearing an iron-red and gilt cloud pattern blanket over its saddle, a puce-decorated gu-form vase to hold the candle on its back
9³⁄₄ in. (24.8 cm.) high

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 26 January 2006, lot 46.

M. Cohen and W. Motley, Mandarin and Menagerie: Chinese and Japanese Export Ceramic Figures, Reigate, 2008, p. 193, cat. no. 13.2.

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Lot Essay

This model, so reminiscent of Qianlong period recumbent elephant sauce tureens, must have led to the early 19th century iron-red elephant candleholders that are much more easily found. The motif of an elephant bearing a vase on its back was found in Chinese metalwork from at least the Ming dynasty. A magnificent gilt-bronze pair, made for the Qianlong court, were in the collection of C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love, and sold at Christie's, New York, 20 October 2004, lot 353. The white elephant symbolized mental strength and purity in Buddhism, and was the form the Buddha took in his last incarnation on Earth.