A FINE CLEAR GLASS ETCHED 'BIRD-AND-BERRY' BOWL

Qing dynasty Glass Although glass was used for inlays in China as early as the Zhou dynasty, and was used during the Han dynasty for the manufacture of items such as plaques for burial suits in imitation of jade, it was only rarely used for vessels in the early period. Glass vessels were admired - both Roman glass and Sassanian glass have been found in Chinese tombs - and the Jin dynasty (AD 265-420) poet Fu Xian, for example, was eloquent on the subject of a Roman glass bowl, which he likened in its beauty to a Spring day, comparing its clarity to the ice in Winter, and marvelling at its freedom to choose its own shape. In the Southern Song dynasty (AD 1127-1279) the literatus Zhou Mi noted that the fashionable vessels in which to place arrangements of flowers were those made of metal, Guan ware ceramics, or Islamic glass. However, although glass continued to be made in several areas of China during successive dynasties, and the area around Boshan in Shandong province was an important centre for glass-making in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it was not until the Qing dynasty that Chinese craftsmen fully explored the potential of glass. The new enthusiasm for glass can be laid squarely at the door of Europeans, who brought items of glass and crystal to China in the late Ming and Qing dynasties. At the end of the Ming dynasty Matteo Ricci, the first Jesuit missionary to be received at the Chinese court, included two glass prisms among the gifts he presented to the Emperor on his arrival in Beijing in 1601, and the Jesuit missionary Father Frangois Xavier D'Entrecolles writing in September 1712 noted that 'They are almost as curious in China about glass and crystal coming from Europe as we are over their porcelain '. As in so many other areas, the main force behind the development of Chinese glass in the early Qing dynasty was the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722), whose interest lay both in the beauty of vessel glass and the utility of glass and crystal for scientific instruments. It was through the latter interest that the emperor acquired a supervisor for his glass workshop. The German Jesuit Kilian Stumpf arrived in Macao, and finding that the condition of some of the scientific instruments he had brought with him had deteriorated during the sea voyage, he set to work cleaning and restoring them. This activity was reported back to the emperor by local officials, and in 1695 Stumpf was commanded by the emperor to present himself at the court in Beijing. In 1696 the Imperial glass atelier was established next to the house of the French missionaries, with whom Stumpf was lodged, and the latter was placed in charge. A letter written by the Jesuit artist Matteo Ripa in May 1715 notes that Stumpf had built a number of glass furnaces as well as all the other things required by a large glass workshop. Craftsmen trained in glass manufacture were also brought from other parts of China including Shandong, Guangzhou and Yanshan to work in the court atelier. The court archives note a set of twelve glass cups decorated with incised patterns made by a craftsman from Guangzhou called Cheng Xianghui in 1708 and a further set of twelve made by Zhou Jun, also from Guangzhou, in 1715. Kilian Stumpf has been credited with the introduction of a number of German glass techniques to the Chinese imperial workshops, including the use of the blow iron and the technique of wheel cutting and specialist polishing. In reference to the lovely transparent bowl with delicate engraved design (Lot 738) it is also noteworthy that Stumpf was a native of a region of Germany known for its diamond-point engraving. The Jesuits were also involved in the introduction of enamel painting on glass during the Kangxi reign. Even after Stumpf's death in July 1720, the Jesuit missionaries continued to be involved in imperial glass production, and the atelier flourished, especially during the reign of the Qianlong emperor, which may be regarded as the high point of imperial Chinese glass production. In this reign the glass craftsmen were able to produce a huge range of colours and textures, and were able to mould, blow and cut the glass, as well as applying enamels and contrasting coloured layers. One of the most striking techniques popular in the Qianlong reign was that in which a coloured over-layer was cut to reveal the layer beneath. A fine example of this is the white vase with deep red overlay decoration (Lot 740). By the mid-18th century glass of many colours was made and a number of exceedingly handsome monochrome glass vessels date from this period (Lots 739-744, 747-750). Glass was also included in the Qianlong emperor's fondness for using one material to imitate another, as can be seen in the jade-like translucent tripod jar (Lot 742) and the celadon-coloured tripod censer (Lot 751). From this time to the end of the dynasty beautiful glass vessels continued to find favour with the Chinese court. Glass THE PROPERTY OF AN ASIAN COLLECTOR (lots 680-707)

Details

A FINE CLEAR GLASS ETCHED 'BIRD-AND-BERRY' BOWL
YONGZHENG INCISED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

With rounded sides rising to the everted mouth rims, the exterior delicately etched with birds in flight among berries growing from scrolling leafy vines, the reign mark incised within the foot ring
6 7/8 in . (17.5 cm.) diam., box

Lot Essay

A similarly etched bowl dated to the late 17th century, formerly from the K.R. Malcolm, and Professor and Mrs Plesh collections, was sold in our London Rooms, 16 November 1998, lot 291; and is illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, Grandeur in Qing Glass, the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, The University of Hong Kong, 2000, p. 262, no. 96.

Engraving of this type was introduced to the Imperial workshops by the German Jesuit missionary, Kilan Stumpf. In 1696, Emperor Kangxi appointed Stumpf to supervise the establishment of Imperial glass workshops with the help of craftsmen drafted from glass-making centres in Yanshan and Guangzhou. Stumpf was renowned for his glass-making and enamelling skills, and contributed to the Chinese glass-making tradition, the German technique of wheel-cutting and in particular diamond-point engraving. For a further discussion on the Imperial glassworks, see E. Byrne Curtis, 'Chinese Glass and the Vatican Records', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1992-93, vol. 57, pp. 49-58. .

Compare with three clear vessels very similarly decorated, all unmarked and dated to the Kangxi period: a dish from the collection of Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein; and a pair of cups in The Corning Museum of Glass, New York, included in the China Institute of America Exhibition catalogue Clear as Crystal, Red as Flame, New York, 1990, pls. 10 and 11.

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