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Lot Essay
The censer is formed from an opaque white glass body overlaid with a ruby-red layer. The exterior is crisply carved through the ruby-red layer with a band of floral motifs on the globular body, a band of classic scroll on the waisted, below a finely incised Da Qing Qianlong nianzhi reign mark on the side of the everted mouth.
The present censer is a very rare example of imperial overlay glasswares from the Qianlong period. Overlay glasswares represents a major category of imperial glasswares produced during the Qianlong period, with wares from the Imperial Workshops typically characterised by monochrome overlays on monochrome grounds, such as the present censer, rather than polychrome overlays popular among the provincial workshops.
Censers of this type originally formed part of a five-piece garniture, comprising a censer, a pair of candlesticks, and a pair of vases, to be placed on altar tables within imperial architectural complexes. Similar examples are rare, although a nearly identical Qianlong-marked ruby-red glass overlay censer (20cm. high, 15 cm. wide, 20 cm. diam.), retaining its original cover, can be found in the collection of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (fig.1); this censer was exhibited at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2743, lent by Henry Robert Burrows Abbey. Another related example, smaller in size (10.2 cm. high, 21 cm. wide), with a more compressed body and a plain neck, and engraved with a Qianlong four-character mark, was sold at Bonhams New York, 16 September 2024, lot 122. An overlay glass tripod censer of similar form and decoration was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2743. Compare the present lot with another glass censer of the same design, but with blue overlay, as part of a five-piece garniture in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Lustre of Autumn Water: Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshops, Beijing, pp. 232-233 (fig. 2). Compare also a Qianlong imperial two-colour glass vase featuring a mid-section of a similar ivory-toned white glass, possibly in imitation of jade, previously in the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2931.
The period from the first to the thirtieth year of the Qianlong reign (1736–1765) marks the height of production at the Imperial glass workshops, both in scale and diversity. The Qing Imperial Archives contains numerous records relating to the manufacture of overlay glass, including several entries referring specifically to ruby-red overlay glass three-piece and five-piece garnitures. For example, records from 1752 and 1753 describe sets being fitted with stands and installed at Jiyun Lou in the Cining Palace garden and at Yongan Temple in Beihai Park—both important sites of imperial Buddhist practice. These archival references confirm not only the production of white-overlay ruby-red glass garnitures during the Qianlong period, but also their active use in court ritual contexts, underscoring their significance within the imperial workshop system.
The present censer is a very rare example of imperial overlay glasswares from the Qianlong period. Overlay glasswares represents a major category of imperial glasswares produced during the Qianlong period, with wares from the Imperial Workshops typically characterised by monochrome overlays on monochrome grounds, such as the present censer, rather than polychrome overlays popular among the provincial workshops.
Censers of this type originally formed part of a five-piece garniture, comprising a censer, a pair of candlesticks, and a pair of vases, to be placed on altar tables within imperial architectural complexes. Similar examples are rare, although a nearly identical Qianlong-marked ruby-red glass overlay censer (20cm. high, 15 cm. wide, 20 cm. diam.), retaining its original cover, can be found in the collection of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (fig.1); this censer was exhibited at the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2743, lent by Henry Robert Burrows Abbey. Another related example, smaller in size (10.2 cm. high, 21 cm. wide), with a more compressed body and a plain neck, and engraved with a Qianlong four-character mark, was sold at Bonhams New York, 16 September 2024, lot 122. An overlay glass tripod censer of similar form and decoration was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2743. Compare the present lot with another glass censer of the same design, but with blue overlay, as part of a five-piece garniture in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Lustre of Autumn Water: Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshops, Beijing, pp. 232-233 (fig. 2). Compare also a Qianlong imperial two-colour glass vase featuring a mid-section of a similar ivory-toned white glass, possibly in imitation of jade, previously in the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2931.
The period from the first to the thirtieth year of the Qianlong reign (1736–1765) marks the height of production at the Imperial glass workshops, both in scale and diversity. The Qing Imperial Archives contains numerous records relating to the manufacture of overlay glass, including several entries referring specifically to ruby-red overlay glass three-piece and five-piece garnitures. For example, records from 1752 and 1753 describe sets being fitted with stands and installed at Jiyun Lou in the Cining Palace garden and at Yongan Temple in Beihai Park—both important sites of imperial Buddhist practice. These archival references confirm not only the production of white-overlay ruby-red glass garnitures during the Qianlong period, but also their active use in court ritual contexts, underscoring their significance within the imperial workshop system.