No live auction on this lot. To bid, please contact the office: [email protected] No live possible for this lot. If you want to bid, please contact us : [email protected] CHINA - QIANLONG period (1736 - 1795) Rare and important imperial automaton clock in gilt bronze and inlaid with faceted glass beads imitating precious stones, decorated with tributes bearers. In three parts: The lower part in gilt bronze, resting on a frieze openwork of finely chiseled leaves, the four feet in the form of leaves. The corners decorated with a frieze of leaves overlapping. The recto showing behind a glass on a mirror background an animated scene of tribal bearers accompanied by elephants and horses each carrying gifts in a landscape decorated with trees. The characters are busy entering and exiting a European-style house on each side. The scene is framed by a frieze inlaid with square translucent and pink faceted glass paste imitating precious stones between two fine friezes of gilt bronze beads. The back with openwork decoration of stylized scrolls and brown silk. Each side decorated with a painting fixed under glass with a European landscape showing a young woman near a bank, surrounded by a frieze of two branches. The central part decorated with a frieze of interlaced stylized flowers, in each corner a gilded bronze vase with an automaton tree composed of five alternating rows of pink, green and white faceted pear-shaped glass turning on itself. The square gilt bronze block containing the clock, the dial with Roman numerals under a glass half-globe surrounded by a frieze of square glass with alternating pink and white facets and branches of flowers entwining. The corners are cut and decorated with a frieze of gilt bronze pearls. On each side, a vase with two handles in the shape of rams' heads resting on three leaf-shaped feet surrounded by a garland of superimposed leaves. The back is decorated with openwork stylized scrolls and brown silk. The upper part also decorated with a frieze of stylized flowers intertwined, in each corner a vase decorated with leaves with two wheels of St. Catherine turning each in a reverse direction, inlaid with glass square cut faceted pink and translucent around a round cut faceted pink central surrounded by ten square cut faceted green. Resting on four feet in the form of leaves, a cylinder with an automaton: eight cylinders in blue enamel and gold decorated with flowers turning on themselves and in the direction of the needle of a watch, alternated with wheels of St. Catherine with six branches decorated with round cut faceted pink glass with translucent central cabochon turning on themselves, the interior of the circle decorated with a central flower around which turn eight round cut glass flowers with pink facets and translucent. The whole surrounded by a frieze of triangular size with pink and green glass facets. The cylinder is surmounted by a flower resting on its foliage and displaying a bouquet of eight flowers with leaves in green painted enamel, the flowers in aspens in pink and translucent faceted square glass, the whole surmounted by a half-closed lotus flower bud in pink and translucent faceted square glass, the bouquet turning on itself. The back with openwork decoration of stylized scrolls and brown silk. The enamel dial, the hours in Roman numerals, the quarters in Arabic numerals under a convex glass. The automaton is activated every hour or on demand by a button on the left side which activates the tributary bearers on a chain in the lower part, the four trees on the central part, the four wheels of Saint Catherine, the central cylinder and the upper tree turning on itself. Three melodies can be selected at the back by a button. Total height 85 cm Dim. of the base 36 x 28 cm Dim. of bottom box 31 x 24 cm Dim. top box 23 x 23 x 18 cm Diam. upper cylinder 15 cm Diameter of the dial 13 cm Provenance: Nezu Museum, Tokyo Christie's sale, Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1508 References: Similar examples in the Forbidden City Museum, Beijing, reproduced in t