Page 176 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
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AN IMPERIAL RED OVERLAY GLASS DOUBLE-GOURD
BOTTLE VASE
Qianlong four-character Mark in a square and of the Period, Beijing red-overlay snuff bottles of gourd shape, that represents one of the
Palace Workshops most intriguing groups of cameo-overlay glass from the eighteenth
The semi-transparent dark red overlay beautifully carved with a century. Their imperial status seems assured, given the wheel-cut
scrolling double-gourd vine with five-petalled flower-heads and Qianlong reign marks borne by many and their relationship to a group
simple leaves that rises from a small pierced rockwork to one side of of vessels still in the Imperial Collection in Beijing, see Yang Boda,
the lower gourd and gently follows an anti-clockwise motion around Zhongguo meishu quanji. Gongyi meishu bian, vol. 10, no’s. 263-
the lower gourd, finally rising upward and continuing in the same 275. Whilst it is generally accepted that standards of glassmaking
direction around the upper gourd, a band of overlay at the rim, on began to decline by the 1760s, when master lapidaries turned their
a short circular red-overlay foot ring, the white glass base with a attention to the influx of jades pouring in from conquered lands to the
double-squared Imperial mark. south, the lapidaries that still worked with glass, could still produce
4 1/2in (12.2cm) high, box masterpieces such as this impressive example. With its characteristic
well-cut Qianlong mark, the superb lively design of vines gently rising
$15,000 - 20,000 around the body, the use of a splendid dark strawberry-red overlay, it
displays all the artistic standards expected of Imperial workmanship.
御製白套紅料《瓜瓞綿綿》葫蘆瓶 乾隆四字雙方框款 北京宮廷造
See also larger red overlay bottle vase with fruiting trees and
Provenance blossoms, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Elegance and
Gerard Hawthorn, London, Late 1990’s Radiance, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
2000, pp. 286-87, no. 186.
出處：
倫敦 Gerard Hawthorn，1990 年代後期

This small bottle vase bears comparison with a group of smaller

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