An imperial cloisonné vase with lotus decoration

Description:

China, Qianlong four-character mark 'Qianlong nian zhi' with fifth character 'zhen' and of the period
H. 14,5 cm
The bulging body stands on a flared foot and rises to a high neck that gently widens towards the gilded rim. The upper part is decorated between ruyi head bands at the mouth and foot with stylised lotus flowers supported by winding leafy tendrils, all held back on a turquoise ground. The base is engraved with a four-character mark Qianlong nianzhi and the period, with a fifth character above.
From an important South German private collection, acquired on 9 August 1976 from Offermann & Schmitz, Wuppertal (original invoice preserved)
This vase was made for the storage of incense instruments. These types of small cloisonnévases, incense burners and instruments (luping sanshi) made for burning incense had an additional mark under the emperors mark and were made for the Qianlong court. Some scholars have speculated that the fifth mark under the Qianlong mark may have been a way of numbering the large group of objects in the correct order, see H. Brinker and A. Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, pp. 74-79
Compare a similar cloisonné-vase from the Pierre Uldry Collection, published in Brinker and Lutz in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, no. 285, p. 283. See also a similar cloisonné vase, Qianlong mark and period, in the Palace Museum, illustrated in Zheng Xinmiao, ed, Compendium of Collection in the Palace Museum: Enamels 2 - Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing, 2011, fig. 154 - Two small filled dents to body