An unusual small cloisonné enamel archaistic vase, gu Mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 掐絲琺瑯獸面紋出戟觚 《乾隆年製》款

Acquired in New York, December 2000.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11th April 2008, lot 2802.

2000年12月購於紐約

香港蘇富比2008年4月11日，編號2802

Archaistic cloisonné gu-form vases of circular section are more unusual than gu vases of square section based on the fangzun form. The scale of the present piece, as well as the degree of finish, with the carved foot and lip, are also unusual. It is possible that the present vase was originally part of an incense set, comprising the present vase, a censer and a box for incense, as the vase seems too small to have been part of an altar garniture, a typical use of archaistic cloisonné vases during the Qianlong period. Alternatively, the present vase may have simply been an elegant accoutrement for the studio, its intimate scale suitable for a single blossom.

A flanged archaistic gu vase, attributed to the 15th century, but probably 17th /18th century, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. III-50. For a larger archaistic gu (33 cm) with flanges along the body and base, and with Kangxi mark and of the period, see Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, Zurich, 1989, nos. 224, 224a. Compare another larger (28.6 cm) gu vase from the Palace Museum, Beijing, attributed to the Qianlong period, with flanges to the cylindrical body and flared foot, illustrated in Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace, Macao, 2005, cat. no. 19. See also a slightly more robust and larger (31.5 cm) gu with similar decoration and incised leiwen to lip and foot, attributed to the Qianlong period, sold in our London rooms, 29th June 1976, lot 12.