QIANLONG ENGRAVED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

This cup is very similar to an amber glass cup engraved with a flowering tree and a butterfly, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water - Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, p. 284, no. 113 (see fig. 1). The decoration on these cups is wheel-engraved, a technique frequently used instead of diamond-point engraving in Europe in the 18th century. This technique may have been introduced to Chinese glass craftsmen by the Jesuit missionaries working at the court. A transparent pale yellow glass cup of similar shape engraved in diamond point with lilies and a butterfly, with Yongzheng mark, is in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, and illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, no. 97. It is very likely that glass cups of this type were made in sets, similar to the sets of twelve porcelain wine cups made for the court during the earlier reign of Kangxi (1662-1722), where each cup, of similar tub shape, was decorated in wucai enamels with a different flower corresponding to a month of the year. A set of these porcelain cups is illustrated by R. Scott, Percival David Foundation of Art - A Guide to the Collection, London, 1989, p. 100, pl. 104.