QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

This dazzling gilt-bronze vase is inlaid with multi-coloured paste glass, a decorative technique that was inspired by European automaton clocks that so enchanted the Qianlong Emperor. Although the technique is western, the style of the vase and its decorative theme is undoubtedly Chinese. The use of two bats as handles is very auspicious, as bat, fu, is a homophone for fortune. Coupled with the character ji, auspicious, as a central roundel on the main band makes the auspicious wishes clear. The wishes conveyed by this vase points to the possibility that it may have been commissioned as a birthday gift for the Qianlong Emperor. The casting of the bronze is also extremely fine on this vase, as one can see from this band of rococo style leaves. This vase is a great example of how Western techniques and aesthetics were adapted by Chinese artist for the Palace. For a range of Guangzhou-made clocks similarly inset with multi-coloured paste stones and melding Chinese and European decorative patterns in the Beijing Palace Museum, refer to Timepieces Collected By Qing Emperors in the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 51-80.

A similarly rendered gilt-bronze censer inlaid with polychrome paste glass of the same colour scheme and chased on the gilt-bronze ground with a hybrid of Chinese and European motifs exhibited in Chinese Patronage. Treasures from Temples and Palaces, Christopher Bruckner, London, 1998, pl. 27. According to Bruckner, the censer was made in Guangdong and was possibly a tribute gift to the court in Beijing or even commissioned by the court itself. Compare also to a set of gilt-bronze Eight Buddhist Emblems with similar paste inlay in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in A Special Exhibition of Buddhist Gilt Votive Objects, Taipei, 1995, pl. 30.