Page 162 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

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A RARE YELLOW-GROUND 清乾隆

GREEN OVERLAY GLASS 黃地套綠料螭龍紋長頸瓶
‘CHILONG’ BOTTLE VASE 《大清乾隆年製》款

SEAL MARK AND PERIOD OF 來源：
QIANLONG Liliane Fould-Springer（1916-2003年）及 Elie de
Rothschild（1917-2007年）收藏
with a globular body rising from a short splayed foot to a
tall gently flaring neck, skilfully carved through the green
overlay to the yellow ground, the globular body decorated
with a broad frieze enclosing two pairs of confronting chilong,
each mythical beast with an elongated body neatly rendered
in angular scrollwork, between varying bands of pendent
and upright lappets, the neck adorned with a pair of chilong
clambering amidst ruyi motifs, all between two green bands
encircling the rim and foot, the base wheel-cut with a six-
character seal mark
17.8 cm, 7 in.

PROVENANCE
Collection of Liliane Fould-Springer (1916-2003) and Elie de
Rothschild (1917-2007).

HK$ 800,000-1,000,000
US$ 102,000-128,000

This extremely rare overlaid glass vase, inscribed with a
Qianlong six-character seal mark, is intricately decorated in
vivid emerald-green overlays against a rich yellow ground.
The powerful archaistic dragon decoration encapsulates the
Qianlong Emperor’s reverence for antiquity. The only other
closely related example appears to be another overlaid glass
vase in the Machida City Museum, illustrated in The Glass
the Galle Adored. Glass from the Qing Imperial Collection,
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2018, p. 66, cat. no. 42. It
shares the same distinctive decorative technique of chilong
with elongated bodies neatly rendered in angular scrollwork,
differing from the current vase in that the colour scheme is
black on yellow.
For another Qianlong glass vase sharing the same rare six-
character seal mark, see an amber glass vase in the collection
of Robert H. Clague, decorated with a pair of chilong above
a diaper-patterned shawl, included in the exhibition Chinese
Glass of the Qing Dynasty, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix,
1987, cat. no. 15.

Mark

160 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比