PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION An Imperial Red Overlay Glass double-gourd Bottle vaseQianlong four-character Mark in a square and of the Period, Beijing Palace Workshops The semi-transparent dark red overlay beautifully carved with a scrolling double-gourd vine with five-petalled flower-heads and simple leaves that rises from a small pierced rockwork to one side of the lower gourd and gently follows an anti-clockwise motion around the lower gourd, finally rising upward and continuing in the same direction around the upper gourd, a band of overlay at the rim, on a short circular red-overlay foot ring, the white glass base with a double-squared Imperial mark. 4 1/2in (12.2cm) high, box 御製白套紅料《瓜瓞綿綿》葫蘆瓶 乾隆四字雙方框款 北京宮廷造 Provenance: Gerard Hawthorn, London, Late 1990's 出處： 倫敦 Gerard Hawthorn，1990 年代後期 This small bottle vase bearsparison with a group of smaller red-overlay snuff bottles of gourd shape, that represents one of the most intriguing gro of cameo-overlay glass from the eighteenth century. Their imperial status seems assured, given the wheel-cut Qianlong reign marks borne by many and their relation to a group of vessels still in the Imperial Collection in Beijing, see Yang Boda, Zhongguo meishu quanji. Gongyi meishu bian , vol. 10, no's. 263-275. Whilst it is generally accepted that standards of glassmaking began to decline by the 1760s, when master lapidaries turned their attention to the influx of jades pouring in from conquered lands to the south, the lapidaries that still worked with glass, could still produce masterpieces such as this impressive example. With its characteristic well-cut Qianlong mark, the superb lively design of vines gently rising around the body, the use of a splendid dark strawberry-red overlay, it displays all the artistic standards expected of Imperial workman. See also larger red overlay bottle vase with fruiting trees and blossoms, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Elegance and Radiance , The Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 286-87, no. 186.