Bonhams 1793 : An Imperial ruby-red glass 'spindle' vase Qianlong wheel-cut four-character mark and of the period

A ruby red glass 'spindle' vase Qianlong wheel-cut four-character mark and of the period

24 Nov 2012 15:00 CST Hong Kong
A Private North American Collection of Scholar's Objects
Back to auction 20909

An Imperial ruby-red glass 'spindle' vase

Qianlong wheel-cut four-character mark and of the period
The heavily constructed body of slender curved form, tapering elegantly from the narrow foot to the swollen central body, rising to a long flared neck, the translucent colour of a deep ruby red, the countersunk base wheel-cut with a four-character mark within a double square.
17.8cm high.

Sold for HK$ 187,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance 來源:
Doris Duke collection

Doris Duke (22 November 1912 28 October 1993) was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist. She was the daughter of an immensely rich tobacco tycoon, which enabled her to fund her wide-range of interests including collecting Oriental art. She furnished her estates with artworks acquired on her worldwide travels.

The shape of the vase derives originally from a weaving spindle, but in the Chinese context, it is interpreted as the form of an olive, insinuating the likeness to the pit of the natural fruit. In ceramics, this form first appeared during the Yongzheng period, in monochrome, polychrome and underglaze-blue.

A closely related and similar-sized 'sky-blue' glass vase with Qianlong wheel-cut four-character mark and of the period is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Luster of Autumn Water. Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshop, Beijing, 2005, p.154, pl.24.

For a closely related Imperial glass vase sold at auction, see a Qianlong reign-marked turquoise-green glass vase from the collecton of Dr. Alan E. Feen, illustrated in Shangraw, Rabiner and Brown, A Chorus of Colors: Chinese Glass from Three American Collections, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1995, pp.80-81, cat.no.50, and sold in these rooms, 24 November 2010, lot 201. See also another turquoise glass vase, illustrated in Elegance and Radiance. Grandeur in Qing Glass. The Andrew K. F. Lee Collection, Art Museum. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2000, pp.170-171, no.48.

清乾隆御製紅玻璃橄欖式瓶「乾隆年製」刻款

瓶為吹製而成。口微侈，削肩，長頸，中腹微鼓，下斂收成圓形凹底。因整器形似橄欖而稱橄欖瓶。通體酒紅色透明玻璃製成，色澤均勻，光潔瑩潤。外底中心陰刻單方框，內刻「乾隆年製」雙豎行四字楷書款。

更多有關橄欖瓶器形在宮廷藝術品中的運用，詳見拍品301。

此橄欖瓶來自1920年代全球最富有女性多麗絲（Doris Duke）之舊藏，多麗絲出生煙草大亨世家，熱衷於東方藝術品的收藏，在繼承七億五千萬美金遺產後便致力慈善事業。北京故宮博物院所藏一件清乾隆天藍色玻璃橄欖式瓶，為不透明涅玻璃所製，其器形與本瓶完全一致，見張榮編，《光凝秋水-清宮造辦處玻璃器》，北京，2005年，頁154，編號24。另見美國著名腫瘤學家 Dr.Alan Feen 中國玻璃器收藏中一件器形相似的仿綠松石色玻璃橄欖式瓶，曾藏於三藩市亞洲藝術博物館，《A Chorus Of Colors》，1995年，頁80-81，圖版50，後於香港邦瀚斯2010年11月24日拍賣，拍品編號201；另外李景勳藏清代玻璃中，亦有相類品，見香港中文大學文物館，《虹影瑤輝：李景勳藏清代玻璃》，香港，2000年，頁170，編號48。