QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER WHEEL-CUT MARKS IN A LINE WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHARACTER, GUO, AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

This incense set belongs to a group of superbly crafted scholar’s objects produced at the imperial glass workshops during the Qianlong period. The group comprises: a small circular box for the storage of incense either in strip, coil or pellet form; a tool vase which accommodated implements such as chopsticks and a spatula for raking over ashes; and a censer. It is exceptionally rare that all three components of this glass incense set have remained together. Each piece bears a wheel-cut Qianlong six-character mark in a line on the base above a single additional character, guo. Scholar’s objects produced at the imperial glass workshops during the Qianlong period often bear an additional character under the reign mark, which is believed by some scholars to be a serial number from the Chinese classic Qianziwen, 'The One Thousand Word Essay', which has a strong connection to the Imperial Workshops (See Elegance and Radiance, Grandeur in Qing Glass, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, p. 312).

Other carved overlay glass vessels from this group include the blue-overlay white glass censer and vase of similar shape to those in the present set, also with an additional character below the mark, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Zhang Rong in Luster of Autumn Water, Glass of the Imperial Workshop, Beijing, 2005, pp.228-9, no. 70 (Fig.1) and pp. 226-7, no. 69, respectively. Others in the group include a blue-overlay, white glass ‘dragon’ box and cover sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2023, lot 3747, with the additional character shuang, as well as a red-overlay version of the box in similar proportions, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 16 March 2016, lot 350, with the character jin below the Qianlong mark. A compressed blue-overlay, white glass censer with the character han below the mark was sold at Christie’s New York, 25 March 2022, lot 1210.