Lot 866. Property from the Collection of Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg, New York. A very rare pair of imperial three-color glass stem bowls, Qianlong four-character wheel-cut marks and of the period (1736-1795); 12.8 cm high. Price realised USD 730,800 (Estimate USD 80,000 – USD 120,000) © Christie's 2024

Provenance: E&J Frankel, New York, prior to 1987 (by repute).
Elaine (1921-2020) and Alexandre Rosenberg (1921-1987) Collection, New York.

Note: This pair of stem bowls belongs to a rare group of multi-color glass vessels, with the sections of the vessel delineated by contrasting colors. The colors of the individual sections are thought to have been used to imitate other materials. These rare stem bowls include imitations of lapis, coral and jade and reflect the emperor’s fascination with creating objects that trick the eye.

The present pair of stem bowls is extremely rare, with the addition of carved decoration around the stems and the underside of the bowls. A pair of candlesticks with sections of turquoise, dark blue, yellow and red glass are in the Tokyo National Museum and also feature carved supports and domed bases, with four-character Qianlong marks wheel-cut on the upper blue sections of the bases. A multi-colored glass vase on tiered base in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with the four-character Qianlong mark evenly spaced on the a low-domed base, is illustrated by Zhang Rong (ed.) in Luster of Autumn Water – Glass of the Imperial Workshop, Beijing, 2005, pp. 192-3, no. 50.

Small vases constructed with bands of contrasting colors were also created. A five-color example with a four-character Qianlong mark evenly spaced around the underside of the foot, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in ibid., pp. 194-5, no. 51. A pink, bluish-green and bright blue glass vase was included in the sale Luminous Colors, Treasures from the Shorenstein Collection; Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2939, and includes the Qianlong wheel-cut four-character reign mark evenly spaced around the outer edge of the slightly concave, solid base.

This rare pair belonged to the renowned New York art dealer Alexandre Rosenberg (1921-1987) and his wife Elaine. Alexandre Rosenberg was the founding president of the Art Dealers Association of America, and the son of the pre-eminent French art dealer Paul Rosenberg, who represented giants of modern art such as Picasso, Matisse and Braque. Alexandre’s gallery in New York won acclaim with exhibitions that ranged from Renaissance bronzes to Cezanne and Picasso, American modernists and contemporaries from England and Italy. His wife Elaine was an influential Fellow of The Morgan Library and deeply involved with MoMA and the Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Rosenberg’s important and distinguished collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books was sold at Christie’s New York on 23 April 2021.

Lot 865. A very rare carved pink-overlay white glass incense set, Qianlong six-character wheel-cut marks in a line with an additional character, guo, and of the period (1736-1795); Censer: 10 cm wide. Box and cover: 6 cm diam. Vase: 13.5 cm high. Price realised USD 163,800 (Estimate USD 70,000 – USD 100,000) © Christie's 2024

Provenance: Private collection, England.

Note: 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 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.

Lot 867. A very rare pink glass zhadou and cover, Qianlong four-character wheel-cut mark within a double square and of the period (1736-1795); 13.9 cm diam. Price realised USD 44,100 (Estimate USD 12,000 – USD 18,000) © Christie's 2024

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 19-20 September 2024