A VERY RARE IMPERIAL BEIJING GLASS OVERLAY 'DRAGON AND PHOENIX' DOUBLE VASE

Details
A VERY RARE IMPERIAL BEIJING GLASS OVERLAY 'DRAGON AND PHOENIX' DOUBLE VASE
INCISED QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD
Carved as two conjoined baluster vases, one carved through the red layer with archaistic phoenixes between bands of key-pattern, scrolling chilong, bats and clouds around the neck and shoulder and key-pattern and pendant cicada around the base, the other with archaistic dragons between bands of classic sroll, pendant cicada and scrolling lotus around the neck and shoulder and classic scroll, key-pattern and archaistic dragon scrolls around the base (minute nick to overlay, rim bruise)
10 in. (25.5 cm.) high, box
Exhibited
Empire of the Dragons, Chinese Art Treasures Through 4000 Years from Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark, Special Exhibition at the Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, 1995, Catalogue, no. 145.

Lot Essay

Previously sold in Hong Kong, 17 May 1989, lot 458.

Double vases of this shape carved from glass are very rare. A comparable example with archaistic dragons over one half and scrolling lotus over the other half through a layer of red to an opaque white ground from the Palace Museum, Beijing, also with an incised Qianlong four-character mark, is illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 10, p. 141, col. pl. 265.

Porcelain versions of this distinctive shape are more common. A blue and white example painted with archaistic phoenixes and dragons from the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, was included in the special Exhibition of Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong Porcelain, Catalogue, p. 100, col. pl. 70. A famille rose example with floral meanders alternatively on a blue and pink ground from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, p. 378, col. pl. 59.

(US$80,000-100,000)

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