A GOLD 'HUANG' PHOENIX ORNAMENT QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

executed in fine filigree work, the hollow body and head made of thin, plaited gold wires soldered together over a wire framework resembling feathers, the beak formed from plain beaten gold, the body resting on outstretched wings of further filigree network and beaten gold trimmed with twisted wire, the long tail plumage neatly splayed out in seven straight feathers with individual barbs of the feather finely rendered along the shaft terminating in palm-shaped 'eyes', further embellished with two grey natural pearls set along the middle of the shaft of two feathers and one on either side of the wings, the underside fixed with two short tubes for affixing to a headdress

Catalogue of the Exhibition of Chinese Art 1935-6, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-36, cat.no. 708.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 55.
Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain: the Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat.no. 23, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat.no. 55.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Ulricehamn, 1999, cat.no. 77.

For a detailed discussion on the present lot, see the footnote for the mate of this piece, lot 2304.