QIANLONG INCISED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

In the archival records, the unusual colour of the present vase is known as "transparent tea yellow". This shape of vase was being made as early as the Yongzheng period, and a transparent blue glass example with an engraved Yongzheng four-character mark in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water - Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, p. 124, no. 6. Also illustrated are two opaque glass examples of this attractive shape, both with Qianlong marks - one turquoise, no. 22, the other blue, no. 23.