AN EXTREMELY RARE ENAMELLED AND GILT-DECORATED SIMULATED 'GOLD AND TURQUOISE-INLAID BRONZE' HAT STANDQIANLONG GILT SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)AN EXTREMELY RARE ENAMELLED AND GILT-DECORATED SIMULATED 'GOLD AND TURQUOISE-INLAID BRONZE' HAT STANDQIANLONG GILT SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)The hat stand comprises three interlocking sections, intricately slotted together around a central column, supported on a waisted stand supported on six ruyi-form feet, the upper and lower sections are both formed with four arms, each reticulated with two chilong around a circular panel simulating turquoise, covered overall in a rich chocolate-brown glaze with details picked out in gilt, the top removable section is pierced with a florette.11 in. (27.8 cm.) high, zitan stand来源: Hat stands played an indispensable part in the daily life in the Qing imperial household. Members of the imperial family placed their hats on the hat stands, which often have small removable covers on the top for placing potpourri in the cavity below to perfume the hats. Several hat stands are found in situ in the Forbidden City, Beijing, including a jade-inset zitan hat stand displayed on a kang table inside the inner chamber of Yangxindian, on which an informal hat of the Emperor is placed, see Qingdai gongting shenghuo, Taipei, 1986, p. 133, fig. 185 (fig. 1); and another hat stand made of jades and wood displayed by the window of the Hall of Three Rarities within the same palace complex, see The Qianlong Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City, Edinburg, 2002, p. 157. Hat stands not only served a utilitarian function in the Qing court, they were art objects worthy of appreciation. They were made in a variety of materials, from jades, woods, enamels, lacquer to porcelain, and sometimes from a combination of these materials, as exemplified by the aforementioned example in the Palace Museum, Beijing (Gu00122084-1/7, fig. 2). Similar to the Palace Museum example, the present hat stand is rather unusual in design for having flanges on the upper half rather than a sphere. Such design is mostly found on materials other than porcelain. For other examples of Qianlong hat stands constructed with four flanges on the upper half, see a jade example with zitan stand in the Palace Museum, Beijing, (Gu00089882, fig. 3); a pair of jade and cloisonné examples with zitan stands sold at Christie’s Paris, 16 December 2022, lot 53 (fig. 4); and a tianqi and qiangjin lacquer example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2020, lot 2834 (fig. 5). Among imperial hat stands, those made of porcelain are some of the most exquisite. The majority of porcelain hat stands of the Qianlong period are made with a spherical top, many reticulated to allow for more perfumed air to pass through. Most of the porcelain hat stands housed in the National Palace Museum, Taipei are of this type, such as a green-enamelled hat stand reticulated with dragons and clouds (zhong-ci-003541, fig. 6), and several other examples decorated in yangcai. The present hat stand further distinguishes itself from other porcelain examples by showcasing the exceptional ability of ceramic decorators at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in imitating a range of different materials using glaze and enamel colours on porcelain. A new array of glaze and enamel colours were developed in the Imperial workshops during the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, thus the craftsmen had a vastly enlarged palette with which to create new designs and effects on porcelain. The 18th century fascination with imitating other materials through the use of glazes and enamels on porcelain was brought to a new height during the Qianlong period, as can be seen in a set of nine thumb rings in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, each of which imitates a different material, including wood, bamboo, marble, pudding stone, inlaid bronze, malachite and turquoise, see Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, National Palace Museum, Taipei, p. 199, no. V-36. The gilt-decoration against a café-au-lait glazed ground on the present hat stand successfully imitates gold-inlaid bronzes, while the turquoise-enamelled discs highlighted with black-enamelled veins closely simulate the colour and texture of turquoise matrix. The present hat stand appears to be the only porcelain hat stand with this decoration. At least four other Qianlong porcelain hat stands imitating carved cinnabar lacquer are known, two decorated with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (zhong-ci-003543-N000000000, fig. 7), one in the Shenyang Museum, illustrated in The Prime Cultural Relics Collected By Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, the China ware volume, the second part, Shenywang, pp. 188-189, no. 3, two decorated with dragons, one sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 3110, another sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 16 May 2012, lot 179. The current type of decorative technique and palette is most similarly found on a censer sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29 May 2013, lot 2126 (fig. 8), which is similarly covered with gilt-decoration on a café-au-lait ground, but with celadon-glazed reticulated panels on the sides possibly imitating the colour of Longquan wares.