清乾隆 茄皮紫釉花插 六字篆書刻款清乾隆 茄皮紫釉花插 六字篆書刻款3 in. (7.5 cm.) highDetails A VERY RARE AUBERGINE-GLAZED FLOWER HOLDERQIANLONG INCISED SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)The finely potted vessel is moulded with a compressed body and a slightly doomed top with three circular apertures. The glaze is of a dark purple colour slightly thinning at the rim and the foot.3 in. (7.5 cm.) high Provenance Acquired circa 1995 Literature Robert Jacobsen, Ye Peilan and Julian Thompson: Imperial Perfection.The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi - Yongzheng - Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, pp. 240, no. 95 Exhibited On loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1998 - 2020Although flower holders from the Qianlong period are well known, also compare lot 2715 in this catalogue, it appears this is the only flower holder with aubergine glaze recorded. The purple tone of this glaze can be compared to a related aubergine-glazed bottle vase, impressed with a Qianlong seal mark from the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. 2, A475, no. 323. Compare also to two Qianlong-marked aubergine-glazed archaistic tripod vessels, jue, one from the Baur Collection illustrated in ibid., no. 322; and the other from the Robert Chang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 November 1999, lot 507.