QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

An almost identical gilt-lacquered wood gui from the Qing Court Collection, bearing both a Qianlong and a Guangxu reign mark, is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Life of Emperor Qianlong, Macau Museum of Art, 2002, p. 63, no. 11 (4). Also included in the catalogue are similarly decorated gilt-lacquer ritual food vessels of different shapes (pp. 61-62), and a white-glazed ceramic gui impressed with a Qianlong reign mark. It is noted that ritual vessels of this type were made in bronze, ceramic and gilt-lacquered wood throughout the Qing dynasty, and it is likely that they were re-used by successive emperors, which would account for the appearance of different reign marks on the same vessel. The author also notes that the gilt-lacquered wood examples were produced both with and without jade inlay, and that the inlaid examples were reserved for Imperial use.