Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795)
with thick walls, the globular body raised on a slightly splayed ring foot and surmounted by a tall cylindrical neck, the opaque bright turquoise-blue glass smoothly polished all over, the four character reign mark of Qianlong within a square wheel-cut on the recessed base.
Height 8 5⁄8 inches (22 cm)
Glass vases in this distinctive shape were produced in the Qing imperial workshops in various colors in both transparent and opaque glass. Several examples in different colors, all inscribed with imperial reign marks, in the collection of Andrew K. F. Lee are illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition of the Lee Collection, Elegance and Radiance: Grandeur in Qing Glass, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 98-110, nos. 8-14.
A very similar opaque turquoise-blue glass vase of this shape from the collection of Robert H. Clague is illustrated by Brown and Rabiner, Chinese Glass of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, Phoenix, 1987, pp. 36-37, no. 35, where the authors cite a similar opaque turquoise glass vase with a Yongzheng reign mark in the British Museum illustrated by Harden, Masterpieces of Glass: a Selection, London, 1968, fig. 169.
清乾隆 御製天藍料天球瓶 高 22 厘米
「乾隆年製」粗方框款
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Mark and Period of Qianlong (1736-1795)
Height 8 5⁄8 inches (22 cm)