Vessel, figure of an elephant, cloisonne enamel on copper with gilt, China, 18th to 19th century

Gilt metal, in the form of an elephant with a vase on its back, decorated with cloisonne enamel.

Wells bequest

Bequeathed by Arthur Wells, accessioned in 1882. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.

Arthur Wells was a Nottingham solicitor and Clerk of the Peace. He was a keen traveller and a Fellow of the Geographical Society. He is considered the first private British collector of Chinese jade and from 1872 his collection of Chinese and Indian jades and other hardstones and Chinese cloisonne objects, was exhibited at the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). This collection, numbering 160 objects, was left to the museum in his will. According to a list in the V&A archive, nine of the Chinese pieces came from 'the Summer Palace, Pekin', which refers to the imperial summer retreat Yuanming Yuan, located north of Beijing, which was plundered and destroyed by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. There is no further information in the archive file allowing us to verify this provenance, but objects looted from Yuanming Yuan were certainly circulating in Britain and Europe in the decades after 1860.

1659:1 to 3-1882