A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE
A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE
A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE
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A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE
4 More
A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE

IMPERIAL GLASS WORKS, BEIJING, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER WHEEL-CUT MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details
A VERY RARE RED-OVERLAY WHITE GLASS HU-FORM VASE
IMPERIAL GLASS WORKS, BEIJING, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER WHEEL-CUT MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The compressed bulbous body is carved in relief through the rich ruby red overlay to the opaque white ground with a central band of four pairs of confronted archaistic chilong set between bow-string borders and floral scrolls. A band of inverted leaf tips and ruyi heads is pendent from the upright mouth rim, and cloud scrolls are carved in the swirling red areas on the spreading pedestal foot.
7 3/8 in. (18.8 cm.) high, box
Provenance
Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, 1976.
Barney and Emma Dagan Collection, Los Angeles, California.
Exhibited
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Collects - Part II, 6 April -12 May 1985.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 17 March - 30 May 1992.

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Lot Essay

The decoration of confronted chilong on the present vase is related to designs inlaid in precious metals on bronzes of the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties. Such archaistic decoration was greatly admired by the Qianlong emperor, himself an avid collector and admirer of antiques, and appears on a number of the decorative arts made for his court. The Qianlong emperor appears to have had a particular fascination with carved red-overlay glass works; the first entries in the Palace Archives relating to glass in the first year of the Qianlong reign cite an order for two red-overlay glass vases, one on an opaque white ground (see Luster of Autumn Water - Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Beijing, 2005, p. 74).

Two glassworking techniques were employed in the manufacture of the present example, combining the extraordinary lapidary skills of the carver with the technical achievements forged in the Imperial Glassworks during the Qianlong period, as seen on the carved ruby red bands of decoration and the swirled red and white foot. A related red-overlay glass double vase carved with bands of red archaistic motifs on a clear ground, also dating to the Qianlong period, is illustrated in Elegance and Radiance: grandeur in Qing glass, the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, Hong Kong: Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, p. 280. pl. 104. See, also a related Imperial four-color glass hu-form vase from the Shorenstein Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2929.

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