3-009-032 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Chinese stove, 1862. 'This quaint object...was derived [stolen?] from the Summer Palace of China...from the lower portion of the basin three curtain or apronlike parts are pendent between the elephant heads. The lower portion of the bowl-like member is enamelled...the knob is formed of perforated work, consisting of dragon and clouds...The brasswork between the panels is perforated, and is formed of a great number of bats with spread wings, congregated in a most confused manner...The rim of the bowl-like portion is divided into ornamental compartments or panels filled with flowers...and the ground on which the panels rest consists of a key pattern (resembling that of the Greeks) in gold...As an art-work this stove has many merits...As a specimen of enamel-ware it is of the deepest interest, not only because of the black ground of its border, which is rare, but also because it is a work of that period in which Chinese enamel-work was produced of the highest excellence, and is consequently about one hundred or one hundred and fifty years old...This work is one of a series which are now offered for sale, and should, certainly, with its associates, be procured for one of our national collections'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.