Lot 3747. A rare blue glass vase, Wheel-cut mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 18.2 cm., 7 1/8  in. Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 HKD. Lot sold 500,000 HKD (57,478 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's

of ganlan form, rising in three gentle curves to incorporate the body swelling from the splayed foot and tapering gracefully before the flared mouth, the glass of a translucent bright blue tone, the base with a four-character wheel-cut mark within a double-square.

Note: Glass vases of this ganlan form are very rare.  The ganlan, or olive-shape, takes its form from the ceramic vases of the Yongzheng period.  This balanced, elegant, slender form is recorded in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 234, fig. 400, no. 15.  The shape is known from blue and white, monochrome and famille-rose wares. 

Compare an opaque blue glass vase of similar form, with Qianlong mark and of the period in the Andrew Lee collection, illustrated in Elegance and Radiance, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 48.  See also a similar opaque yellow vase sold at Christie's London, 19th June 2001, lot 144. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art Hong Kong, 07 Oct 2015