A set of three hardstone-inlaid spinach-green jade altar vessels Qing dynasty, Jiaqing period | 清嘉慶 碧玉嵌寶太平有象瓶、熏爐一組三件

Christie's London, 21st October 1974, lot 45.

Christie's London, 15th July 1981, lot 269.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11th April 2008, lot 2873.

倫敦佳士得1974年10月21日，編號45

倫敦佳士得1981年7月15日，編號269

香港蘇富比2008年4月11日，編號2873

The elephant in China is one of the seven Buddhist Sacred Treasures and symbolises peace. The combination of an elephant (xiang) and a vase (ping), which can often be found on the elephant's back, is a reference to 'peaceful times (taiping youxiang)'. A closely related elephant with inlaid decoration in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jade Ware III, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 114, and a detail, p. 140. Compare also a white jade carving from the De An Tang collection, included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 83; and a spinach-green elephant censer supporting a pagoda on its back, sold in our London rooms, 29th November 1977, lot 253.

Although it is extremely rare to find censers with the body supported on elephant head legs, this form is common in various other materials such as cloisonné, for example the censer sold in these rooms, 9th October 2007, lot 1308.