Page 400 - Christies September 13 to 14th Fine Chinese Works of Art New York

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
1390
A SMALL GILT-DECORATED CAFÉ-AU-
LAIT-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE VASE
QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL
MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND
OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The lobed vase is decorated on either side with a
shaped panel of a mountainous landscape,
reserved on a café-au-lait ground decorated in gilt
with lotus scroll. The narrow neck is fanked
by a pair of archaistic dragon handles.
4 in. (10.2 cm.) high, cloth box
$40,000-60,000

The exceptionally small size of the present vase
suggests that it was a novelty piece, and probably
made for a treasure box or a small display cabinet.
At the height of the Qianlong emperor’s collecting
activities, he amassed more than a million
precious art objects, both from antiquity and by
contemporary craftsmen. They flled imperial
halls and palaces, while smaller objects, like the
present vase, were ordered and stored in display
cabinets or boxes of many treasures, baibao he.
A variety of such boxes are in the collection of
the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, and are
illustrated in One Hundred Pieces from the Palace
Museum, 1990.
清乾隆 褐地描金粉彩開光山水圖小瓶
四字篆書款

(mark)

3 39898