QING DYNASTY, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

Gilt-metal embellishments on a glass vessel appear to be quite rare. A blue glass jar and cover with gilt-copper embellishments and mounts, dated to the Yongzheng period, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.), Luster of Autumn Water - Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Forbidden City Publishing House, 2005, no. 10. Unlike the present, and later, Qianlong period box with its European-influenced mounts, the mounts on the Palace jar are decorated with more typical Chinese-inspired decoration - an openwork design of phoenixes in flight amidst clouds around the sides. What appears to be a pedestal foot, however, is encased by joined vertical sheets of gilt-copper chased with wind-tossed waves rising from rolling waves strewn with precious objects. The entry states that the combination of glass and engraved gilt-copper is "reflected in the documents of the Imperial Workshops in the Yongzheng period".