Lot 1140. An opaque sky-blue glass 'olive'-shaped vase, Qianlong four-character wheel-cut mark within a square and of the period (1736-1795), 7½ in. (19 cm.) high. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 52,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012

The vase has a bulbous mid-section and then tapers towards the neck and the foot.

Provenance: Milwaukee Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Imperial Oriental Art, New York, 1999.
Hugh W. Greenberg (1930-2013) Collection, Franklin, Michigan.

Note: This particular shape is referred to as either 'olive' or 'spindle', and is first seen in porcelain vases of Yongzheng date.
Two similar Qianlong-marked glass vases have been published. One in the Andrew K.F. Lee Collection, is illustrated by Humphrey Hui and Peter Lam in Elegance and Radiance: Grandeur in Qing Glass, The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 170-71, no. 48; the other is illustrated by Zhang Rong in Luster of Autumn Water: Glass of the Imperial Workshop, Beijing, 2005, pp. 154-55, no. 24.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 18 - 19 September 2014, New York