IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO YANGZHOU, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN PALE IRON-RED SEAL SCRIPT AND LATE IN THE PERIOD, 1767-1799

Details

**AN ENAMELED WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO YANGZHOU, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN PALE IRON-RED SEAL SCRIPT AND LATE IN THE PERIOD, 1767-1799
Of flattened form with flat lip and recessed, flat, oval foot surrounded by a footrim, the translucent white glass finely painted in famille rose enamels with a continuous design of a heron wading in reeds beneath flowering roses at the edge of a pond, the other main side with a bird perched on a branch issuing from a hollowed rock and peering down at the roses, the foot inscribed with a four-character mark in pale iron-red seal script, Qianlong nian zhi (Made in the Qianlong period), tourmaline stopper with gilt-metal collar
2 3/64 in. (5.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Potter's Gallery, Vancouver.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

Recent scholarship argues that a distinctive group of glass bottles was produced in Yangzhou for the Court between the 1767 construction of the Guyue Xuan Hall in the Qianlong emperor's Summer Palace and his death in 1799. Hugh Moss discusses several examples in "Mysteries of the Ancient Moon," JICSBS, Spring 2006, pp. 31-32. It is now accepted that bottles of this type bearing either the Qianlong reign mark or the Guyue Xuan hallmark date from these years.

Yangzhou enamels are thinner and applied in a more painterly manner than those on wares executed by the Beijing workshops. An enameled glass snuff bottle painted in a similar palette and in a comparable style, with both the Qianlong and Guyue Xuan marks common to the Yangzhou group, formerly from the Meriem Collection, was sold in these rooms, 19 September 2007, lot 610.

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