QIANLONG INCISED SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE-RECTANGLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

According to Qing court records, in the 45th year of the Qianlong reign (1780), a large number of cloisonné enamel bowls and dishes decorated with Wanshou Wujiang characters were produced for the celebration of the Emperor's 70th birthday. While most of these wares bear Zisun yongbao, 'Forever treasured by sons and grandsons' marks, very few of them are inscribed with Qianlong reign marks as on the current bowl.

Two bowls of the same design but of varying sizes and bearing Zisun yongbao marks are in the Beijing Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum - Enamels (2) - Cloisonne in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, pls. 281 and 282. A similar though slightly larger pair of bowls (15.2 cm. diam.) and bearing a Zisun yongbao mark on the base from the Clague Collection is illustrated in Chinese Cloisonné. The Clague Collection, Phoenix, 1980, pl. 56, where the author mentions that other examples of bowls of this type include one also from the Clague Collection, another from the Staatliche Museum, Berlin, and six in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Compare also to a similar pair of bowls, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 April 1997, lot 16 and again on 28 November 2006, lot 1678.