A rare cloisonné enamel vase, Incised Qianlong mark and of the period
247
A rare cloisonné enamel pear-shaped vase
Incised Qianlong five-character mark and of the period
Brightly enamelled with a continuous lotus scroll around the body in vibrant red, blue, yellow, green, white and purple, the neck with two lotus between and below stylised daisy blossoms, all amidst intricate foliate scrolls and the neck with a narrow band of blue ruyi-heads.
13cm (5 1/8in) high
Sold for £12,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • 清乾隆 掐絲琺瑯纏枝蓮紋直口瓶 陰文「乾隆年製 我」楷書款

    An additional incised character is occasionally found underneath the Qianlong four-character mark, as in the present lot, 'wo我 (me)'. The additional characters can be a single number between one and five; an auspicious invocation, for instance, fu福 (happiness); or an apparent instruction to distinguish the use and category, such as ze則 (standard). However, some of the additional characters do not appear to be related to the set, and scholars have suggested that it could have been a way to number the large number of objects in a correct order.

    See an example of similar design and mark, dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795), illustrated by H.Brinker and A.Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, no.285, and compare another related Qianlong cloisonné enamel vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collection of the Palace Museum: Enamels 2, Beijing and Hefei, 2011, pl.154.

Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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