A superbly cast and rare inlaid gilt-bronze 'qilin' censer and cover Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period

cast standing slightly poised on its four feet, with scaly body and horned wings, the tips of its bifurcated tail curved back to each leg, the cover forming the head, its ferocious facial expression formed from gaping jaws, pronounced brow and bulging eyes, gilded all over and embellished with carved pieces of glass, jade, malachite, lapis lazuli and other multi-coloured hardstones completing an archaistic taotie design (carved hardwood stand)

Very fine and elaborately inlaid censers of this type, in the form of mythical beasts, are extremely rare, and the present piece is remarkable for its well preserved gilding and inlay of semi-precious stones.

Another censer of this type in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1994, cat.no. 119. A related inlaid gilt-bronze censer with a funnel shaped opening in the back, formerly in the Herbert R. Bishop collection and exhibited at the National Academy of Design, 1983, was sold in the American Art Galleries, 25th January 1906, lot 2035, and later in our New York rooms, 20/21st November 1973, lot 3000, and again at Christie's London, 15th June 1999, lot 105; and another parcel-gilt bronze example was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st November 2004, lot 878. See also an inlaid gilt-bronze yingxiong censer, but the mythical beast surmounted by a phoenix, sold in these rooms, 23rd October 2005, lot 396.

Compare a similarly embellished gilt-copper censer and cover in the shape of a mythical beast but without the inlays in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Stephen Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. II, London, 1919, fig. 96.