A gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel 'lotus' censerQianlong incised six-character mark
reign mark in a vertical line, above a single character, guo, box, 9.8cm high注脚Provenance:
Tony Omura, "See an Old Friend" Gallery, Hong Kong
Private collection, Sydney

Cloisonné in the form of earlier bronze prototypes were used profusely during the Qianlong period (1735-1796) as trios of incense burner, container, and related tool caddy, known as luping sanshi in Beijing. Besides the typical reign marks, they often carry an extra character from the Thousand Character Classic, an ancient indexing system Chinese used since as early as the Tang dynasty (618-907). It contains exactly 1000 and non-repeated characters, hence was found to be versatile and efficient in indexing libraries and collections, including the Imperial Collection.

銅胎掐絲琺瑯纏枝勾蓮紋雲耳小爐 陰刻「大清乾隆年製」、「果」楷書款（並盒）

傳承：
香港緣來畫廊 Tony Omura
悉尼私人收藏

如此器器底刻年款並另漢字款者，乾隆朝琺琅器「爐瓶三事」頗多。底款有乾隆四字、六字，有陰刻於方形鎏金、亦有如此器刻於長排鎏金者。「爐瓶三事」，乃北京通行之語，即香爐、箸瓶、香盒三物，焚香必備之物。乾隆朝盛行，更專殿專用。年號款之外的漢字，乃由《千字文》而來，用以編號管理。用「千字文」來管理書籍、器物早在唐代伊始。到了清代，雍正帝對《千字文》中漢字進行刪選更改，去不祥、避諱、數目字等字樣，至乾隆朝廣泛用於宮廷器物。