QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK INSCRIBED IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Based on its size and bottle shape, this vase was very likely made to hold incense instruments, as was a cloisonné enamel bottle vase of this type in the Clague Collection illustrated by Bèatrice Quette in Cloisonné: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, p. 291, no. 130. As with the present bottle, the Clague bottle has an additional character, duan, below the reign mark. The author discusses, pp. 72-75, the small cloisonné vases, censers and instruments (luping sanshi) made for the burning of incense, and notes that a special group of these pieces made for the Qianlong court had an additional character below the reign mark, and "display particularly elegant craftsmanship."