λ A PAIR OF LARGE CHINESE IVORY MODELS OF PAGODAS

18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Each formed as a seven-tiered hexagonal-section pagoda in a fenced garden, the towers delicately decorated with flowers and geometric designs, the tiled roofs with bells suspending from the corners, with a worshipping figure seated inside each tier, the gardens below rich with stained lingzhi, rockwork, bamboo, plantain and finger citron trees, with an official and his attendants standing before each gate, all raised on pedestals finely carved with cartouches enclosing sprays of various fruits and flowers, 67cm. (2)

Cf. J Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, vol.III, p.912, nos.2067 and 2068 for a pair of very similar pagodas; R Kerr, P Allen & C Shih, Chinese Ivory Carvings: The Sir Victor Sassoon Collection, p.326, no.T72 for another comparable example.