Beschreibung:

A RARE PAIR OF GREEN-GROUND FAMILLE-ROSE TROMPE L'OEIL VASESQianlong
Each vase delicately potted with an ovoid body rising from a splayed foot to an elongated neck with a flaring mouth, the shoulders moulded with a beribboned coral-red sash tied at the centre and filled with gilded designs of vaporous clouds and bats, reserved on the overall turquoise-ground decorated with blossoming lotus, all between a band of ruyi at the foot and shoulders, the neck with further blooming lotus. 16cm (6 2/8in) high. (2).Footnotes清乾隆 粉彩描金綠地花卉紋包袱瓶一對
Provenance: Robert Charles Bruce MC (1898-1953), London
Antique West Ltd., London, June 1998
A European private collection
Exhibited, Illustrated and Published:
The Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, London, 1951, no.202 (one of the pair)
來源：Robert Charles Bruce MC (1898-1953)，倫敦
倫敦古董商Antique West Ltd.，1998年6月
歐洲私人收藏
展覽著錄：東方陶瓷學會，《Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912》，倫敦，1951年，第202號（其中一個）
Robert Charles Bruce (1898-1953), who ran a business on the London Stock Exchange, developed his interest in collecting after inheriting the Imperial ceramics and cloisonné enamels collected by his great uncle Sir Frederick Wright-Bruce, British Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China (1859-1865). He loaned more than a dozen items to the Royal Academy Exhibition in London, 1935-1936. During the First World War he served with the Grenadier Guards and won a Military Cross for outstanding service.
Notable for their extravagant designs and refined workmanship, the present vases display the technical innovations and unconventional aesthetics characterising porcelain vessels made during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
Porcelain vases decorated with the eye-catching designs of knotted cloths, such as the present examples, are exceedingly rare and remarkable examples of trompe l'oeil. The design was much favoured by the Qianlong Emperor who favoured porcelain wares that contained elements simulating objects in other materials. The potters active at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen were thus prompted to create wares that were technically innovative and unconventional in their aesthetics.
The Japanese packaging tradition, known as furoshiki, strongly influenced the silky knotted cloth design on the present vases. The illusion of an object wrapped in cloth was frequently evoked in Japanese lacquer and replicated at the Palace Workshops in various media, such as painted enamels, cloisonné, glass, wood and lacquer, throughout the reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors. See, for example, a painted enamel vase and cover, Qianlong mark and period, decorated with designs of knotted scarves, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Enamels, vol.5, Beijing, 2011, nos.141 and 142. See also a lacquer box, Yongzheng, decorated with knotted cloth designs, illustrated in China: The Three Emperors, London 2005, no.175.
The strikingly conceived design depicted on the present vases convey the high standards achieved by the Imperial ateliers inside the Forbidden City, where artists and artisans, well versed in different media, worked together and influenced each other. The resulting overall design is not only visually appealing, but also highly auspicious as the term baofu ('wrapping cloth') is a wordplay on 'wrapping up good luck.'
Compare with a green-ground famille rose trompe l'oeil vase, Qianlong mark and period, featuring similar designs of vaporous clouds decorating the beribboned sash, which was sold at Sotheby's New York, 5 April 2017, lot 3640; see also a pair of related pink-ground famille rose 'trompe l'oeil' jars and covers, Qianlong marks and of the period, which were sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 October 2016, lot 3611.