Page 199 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017
P. 199
This extremely rare enamelled glass snuff bottle is a legacy Amongst the small number of extant Qianlong enamelled glass
of the Imperial Glass Workshops in the Forbidden City at the pieces of this quality in private hands, similarly enamelled with
height of their glory in the Qianlong period, and one of a select precise and minute attention to detail, is a Qianlong reign-
group of bottles successfully decorated with a continuous marked enamelled glass bottle vase, decorated with pheasants
landscape that stretches around the exterior. It was a triumph and bamboo, sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 2846.
of the skills of the enamellers to achieve such a feat on glass, This relates closely to another enamelled glass vase in the
requiring a deep combination of technical precision and Palace Museum, Beijing, decorated with flowers and birds,
artistic flair to render the precise details of the landscape included in Luster of Autumn Water. Glass of the Qing Imperial
with such intricate precision, while retaining the vivid sense of Workshops, Beijing, 2005, pl. 84; a pair of vases painted with
perspective in the landscape. pheasants and flowering peony blooms, from the Corning
Museum of Glass, New York, illustrated in Emily Byrne Curtis,
Another bottle of identical size, form and decoration was ed., Pure Brightness Shines Everywhere. The Glass of China,
sold at Christie’s New York, 19th March 2008, lot 307, from Burlington, 2004, pl. 9.10.
the Meriem Collection. See also a closely related example
previously sold in these rooms, 4th November 1996, lot 30,
later in the Lutz Franz Collection, and now in the Water, Pine
and Stone Retreat Collection. Both were recently included
in the exhibition Imperial Passion, Hong Kong, 2014, and are
illustrated on e-yaji.com, nos 21.3.1207 and 21.3.754.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 197
