AN EXTREMELY RARE BEIJING ENAMEL FALANGCAI GLASS ZHADOU BLUE ENAMEL MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG |

the milky-white glass body with a compressed globular body rising from a straight foot to a prominently flaring neck, the rounded lower body vibrantly painted with an extensive palette with three large shaped cartouches with borders stylistically rendered in pink scrollwork as pairs of confronting kui dragons and enclosing various scenes of landscapes with figures engaging in different activities, the cartouches alternating with three smaller lobed ones bordered with multi-coloured interlocking scrollwork and enclosing depictions in pink enamel of further landscapes with figures, all against a dense ground of elaborate curling fronds between bands of foliage and trefoil motifs, the trumpet neck encircled with a wide frieze of upright plantain leaves and pink kui dragons echoing those bordering the cartouches below and a thin blue-ground band neatly lined with white florets, all reserved on a rich yellow ground, the white base inscribed in blue enamel with a four-character reign mark within a double square

Mayuyama & Co. Ltd, Tokyo, acquired in France, by repute.

There is an original firing crack on the interior from the second firing of the vessel, with associated bruises and hairlines extending around the lower body. There are very minor areas of retouching, including two to the footring, the largest measuring approx. 0.5 cm. The enamels are generally well preserved.
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This exquisitely conceived zhadou vase, with its body made by the imperial artisans in the Glass House and falangcai decoration applied by painters in the Enamelling Workshops, is an extremely rare example of its kind. Masterfully crafted in its miniature size and proportions, its design and execution, it reflects the style of the early part of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign when he was focussed on perfecting this art form. The complexity of creating such works required the close cooperation of different palace workshops. A workshop for enamelling was first set up in the Forbidden City by the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722) in 1693 and a glass workshop followed in 1696. By at least 1705 enamelled glass items had been successfully imported and sent to the emperor; however whereas the Beijing Enamelling Workshops supplied large numbers of exquisitely painted copper-bodied and porcelain-bodied falangcai wares to the court from the late Kangxi to the mid-Qianlong period, many of which are still extant, the number of glass vessels is extremely small. Snuff bottles comprise the vast majority of these vessels, and the few other falangcai glass pieces known are miniature vases, miniature brushpots and other small vessels for the scholars’ desk, rarely measuring over 11 cm.

Such an extensive palette and innovative design scheme stems from the style found on metal-bodied enamelled wares. This influence is also apparent in the tiny speckles on the sky of the landscape cartouches which imitate the stippling technique commonly used on enamelled vessels. Dotting is also visible on the only other recorded Qianlong mark and period falangcai glass zhadou, which is of comparable size but painted with European ladies, included in the National Palace Museum exhibition Ruo shui cheng hua. Yuan cang boli wenwu tezhan / Limpid Radiance. A Special Exhibition of Glass Artifacts from the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 2017, cat. no. 201. It is notable that while no comparable vessel with landscape cartouches is known in glass, a metal-bodied zhadou of closely related form and design is held in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum's exhibition Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, cat. no. 117. While the copper-bodied version is slightly larger, rests on an elaborate openwork base that is part of the overall vessel, and the landscape scenes contain slightly more colour than the present glass version, they are otherwise remarkably similar.

Every element of the present vessel, from its size to form and decoration, has been carefully selected and belongs to a select group of similarly conceived pieces that are derived from a combination of Chinese and European traditions and innovations. These decorative elements, such as the colour schemes, shaped cartouches and elaborate curling fronds, appear to derive from European influences at court as practised by various Jesuit painters working at the court. The remarkable richness and variety of the enamel colours, and in particular the puce-inspired landscape scenes, is highly unusual and found only on a small number of enamelled porcelain and glasswares against a yellow ground; see a porcelain dish and a vase, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Atelier, Taipei, 1992, cat. nos 116 and 145 respectively. The vibrant orangey-pink tone is also used to colour a rose on a glass snuff bottle, included in the National Palace Museum exhibition Limpid Radiance, op.cit., cat. no. 220.

Nonetheless, this vessel is wholly Chinese in concept and style of execution, even though Europeans held prominent positions and were highly influential in both the Glass House and the Enamelling Workshops. Moreover, the Yongzheng Emperor had complained some years prior about some works that although excellent were too Western in flavour. The representation of the landscape scenes in particular is indebted to the long-established tradition of landscape painting in China.

The rarity of falangcai glass is largely explained by the complexity of the production process. According to the catalogue to the exhibition op.cit., p. 178, ‘each colour of enamel is applied separately and fired successively at the temperatures required for each colour, with a view to bond the enamel décor to the glass body. Because the melting point of glass is close to that of enamel, the glass vessel-body can easily melt and deform if firing temperature is too high, while enamel cannot take the desired colour if firing temperature is too low’.

This exhibition included 45 falangcai enamelled pieces, 38 of them snuff bottles and the other seven comprised of a pendant, a miniature spittoon and five small vases (ibid., cat. nos 193-237). According to Zhang Rhong, only 20 falangcai glass pieces are in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, all snuff bottles except two small vases (Zhang Rhong, Guangdong qiushi. Qing Gong Zaobanchu boli qi / Lustre of Autumn Water. Glass of the Qing Imperial Workshops, Beijing, 2005, p. 20, and cat. nos 84-93).