A very rare Imperial opaque turquoise-green glass compressed globular vase, Qianlong four-character wheel-cut mark in a double square and of the period (1736-1795). Estimate $80,000 - $120,000. Price Realized $137,000 . Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase is of compressed globular form with short neck and flared rim, and is carved as if wrapped in a diaper-patterned cloth tied in a bow on one side. The glass is of greenish-turquoise tone with some darker areas around the rim and foot. 6 in. (15.2 cm) high

Provenance: Christie's London, 6 November 2007, lot 62. 
Property from the Lai Family Collection.

Notes: The decoration on this vase incorporates the depiction of a textile tied around a vessel, which was a popular motif on both metal-bodied and porcelain vases in the 18th century. A Qianlong enameled porcelain vase with a design of blossoming prunus branches, from the Grandidier Collection, now in the Musée Guimet, has been painted as if tied with an elaborately knotted scarf in golden yellow patterned with carmine and is illustrated in The World's Great Collections - Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 7, Musée Guimet, Paris, Tokyo/New York/San Francisco, 1981, no. 189. Another enameled porcelain vase in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, has been decorated in a style imitatingcloisonné enamels and then painted as if tied around the widest point with a pink scarf bearing a darker pink pattern, (see Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong - Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 359, no. 40.

A cloisonné enamel example made in imitation of a patterned sash tied around two conjoined Qianlong vessels in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 43 - Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 101, no. 98.

This decorative technique seems to have first become popular in the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor, and continued into the Qialong period. It is very rare, however, to find an example with such a motif in glass, though examples can be found in monochrome wares, such as the white gu-shaped vessel in the Palace Museum, Beijing, (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 128, no. 117). There are also variants in which the vessel appears to be tied up with cord, either with a simple tie, like the Yongzheng celadon vase in the Baur Collection, Sekai toji zenshu - 15 - Qing, Tokyo, 1983, p. 80, no. 88 or in a net-like design such as that on the Qianlong celadon jar in the Palace Museum (illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, op. cit., p. 155, no. 140).

Christie's. THE LAI FAMILY COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART, 17 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza