Beschreibung:

A RARE AND IMPORTANT SMALL FAMILLE ROSE BEIJING ENAMEL BOTTLE QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN BLUE ENAMEL AND OF THE PERIOD, BEIJING PALACE WORKSHOPS Of flattened, rounded shape, delicately painted on each face within a circular cartouche with a European lady and child before a backdrop of a European-style building, hedges and a clear blue sky, one lady wearing a pink dress and holding a child in a blue shirt in her left arm whilst arranging a posy of flowers under her blue bonnet, the other lady wearing a pale lime-green dress holding an orange fruit in her left hand whilst a child in an orange shirt reaches hopefully for the fruit, a gentle wind blowing her hair, the two cartouches embellished and surrounded by scrollwork in blue, green and pink with white highlights interlocking with two small black-ground, symmetric flowerheads within a circular and a diamond-shaped lozenge dividing larger pink landscape vignettes within an oval panel on the narrow sides, the ground of orange appearance cleverly suggested by the delicate use of a yellow ground with a light pink wash and darker pink stippling, all between a fine key-pattern border at the foot and neck, large restored chip to one of the narrow sides, gilt-copper stopper