QING DYNASTY, POSSIBLY QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

This vase belongs to a rare group of multi-colour glass vases, where the various sections of the vase are delineated by different, contrasting colors. One such vase 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, no. 51 (see fig. 1). The shape of the two vases, although not identical, is quite similar. The Palace Museum vase is five colour, and does not appear to have a white inner layer. It has a Qianlong four-character mark in which the characters are spaced evenly around the countersunk center of the base. Another vase of this type in the Palace Museum is also illustrated, no. 112. It has an ovoid body and trumpet-shaped neck decorated in opaque red, white and blue with diagonally swirled stripes, a dark green spreading foot, a turquoise mouth rim, and a white inner layer which can be seen on the interior of the neck. It too has a Qianlong four-character mark inscribed in a manner similar to that of the aforementioned Palace vase, and to the other Imperial four-colour hu-shaped vase in the Shorenstein Collection, offered in the present sale, lot 2929.