A very rare and large cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze candlestickWith a large bell-shaped base rising to a central bulb supporting a large circular dish tray, set to the centre with a tall tapering cylindrical neck, surmounted by a small bulbous section, decorated in brilliant enamels on a bright turquoise ground with stylized lotus blossoms borne on dense scrolling leafy stems, the rims with gilt key-fret bands.注脚清乾隆 掐絲琺瑯纏枝蓮紋大燭台「乾隆年製」楷書刻款 Provenance: Lieutenant-Colonel T.S.Cox, and thence by descent來源：T.S.Cox中校收藏，並由後人保存迄今Lieutenant-Colonel T.S.Cox graduated from Sandhurst Military Academy in 1892 and was commissioned in 1894 into the 16th Indian Cavalry, The Bengal Lancers. His noteworthy military service included in 1897, Tochi Field Force, N.W. Frontier; and in 1900, the China Expeditionary Force during the Boxer Rebellion, when he was awarded the US Military Order of the Dragon. In 1901 he was seconded as Advisor to the Chinese Government and awarded an Imperial decoration by Shanqi, Prince Su (1866-1922). In 1903 he was elected to the Royal Geographical Society. In 1903 he served as Captain in the Indian Army; between 1904–1907, he was posted in the D.M.O. War Office, London, the Balkans, Asia Minor, Somaliland, Abyssinia, Russian Central Asia, and Ottoman Middle East; in 1911 he was awarded the King George V Delhi Coronation Durbar medal. Between 1912-1913 he was posted in the Middle East and Central Asia. In 1915, he took part in the Gallipoli Campaign and in 1916 transferred to command the 37th Dogras. In 1917 he served in the Mesopotamian campaign and was wounded whilst serving in the Aden Field Force. In 1920 he served with the Waziristan Field Force, NW Frontier; in 1921 he transferred to command the 3rd Madras Regiment and in 1925 he retired from the Indian Army as Lieutenant-Colonel.Lieutenant-Colonel T.S. Cox in China 1900 – 1902July 1900: Cox was ordered to North China to join the China Expeditionary Force to relieve the siege of the Beijing International Legation Area by Chinese 'Boxers'. Collected a troop of 16th Bengal Lancers in Hong Kong on August 15 1900 and disembarked at Sinho for Tianjin on September 11. Advanced on Beijing September/October 1900. Subsequently placed in charge of a 'Flying Column' sent to capture Boxer leaders at Baoding, a hundred miles south-west of Beijing. Campaign medal, and learned to speak Chinese. Passed 6-day Chinese language examination. January - June 1901 worked for the British Military Commander, General Sir Alfred Gaselee, and awarded Military Order of the Dragon in April. July 1901 promoted Staff Captain and seconded to raise and train a Battalion of Chinese Railway Police, whose task was to guard the Beijing, Tongshan, and Tianjin districts for the British High Command, stationed at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. January 1 – December 25 1902 Cox was the Officer Commanding Railway Police, Chinese Imperial Railways, most of this time under contract to the Chinese Imperial Government. In addition to this role, from June 1 to December 1902 he was 'Confidential Adviser' to His Imperial Highness Prince Su, Governor of Beijing (the emperor's uncle), and from August 15 to December 1902 also 'Confidential Adviser' to his imperial Highness Prince Qing, Head of Chinese Octroi (Customs) Department. Cox received a Letter of Appreciation and was awarded a Chinese Imperial Decoration for his services. He left Beijing for India on December 25 1902.The present lot would have originally served as a part of a garniture set for ritual or ancestral altars. By the Qing dynasty, garnitures had become imposing displays, proclaiming the wealth and status of the commissioner or owner as they graced the altars of temples and imperial households.Compare with a very similar cloisonné-enamel pricket candlestick, Qianlong mark and period, which is probably the pair to the present lot, illustrated in Chinese Cloisonne: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, p.250, no.250a. For a related five-piece cloisonné enamel garniture in the Qing Court Collection, comprising a related pair of pricket candlesticks decorated with lotus meanders, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl.138.