Offered at John Nicholson’s in Haslemere in Surrey, the 4.4in wide (11.2cm) cloisonné tripod censer drew plenty of attention after being pictured on the cover of the sale catalogue.
The auctioneers believed the censer was of Imperial quality and crucially it featured a gilded square plaque on the base incised with a four character Qianlong mark above a single character.
The sides of the censer decorated with formal scrolling lotus reserved on a turquoise ground while the base had scroll stemmed flowerheads.
Catalogued as mark and period and given a £5000-8000 for the auction on December 16, it drew a number of interested parties and was eventually sold to a UK buyer.
The mark to the base of the £21,000 Chinese censer that sold at John Nicholson’s auction.
