QIANLONG INCISED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE SQUARES AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

The shape of this censer is based on bronze prototypes of the early Ming dynasty. Other glass censers of this shape, but of different colour, have also been published. One in the collection of the Palace Museum, of opaque pink colour, still fitted with its metal liner, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji - Gongyi meishu bian, 10, Beijing, 1987, pl. 254. Two others, of opaque yellow and opaque bluish-turquoise colour, in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, are illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 182-85, nos. 54 and 55, respectively.

Compare also to an opaque turquoise glass censer of this shape, formerly in the Shorenstein Collection and sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2919.