A VERY RARE SMALL PART-GILT CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL BIRD AND FLOWER VASE ON A GREEN-TURQUOISE GROUND China, incised four-character mark and of the period H. 10,4 cm Former old European private collection, sold Nagel 8.11. 2014, lot 659 Cloisonné enamel wares incised with a Yongzheng reign mark are extremely rare, making this piece even more special amongst early Qing enamelled pieces. Beatrice Quette in ‘Inscription and Marks’, Cloisonne, Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New Haven and London, 2011, p. 25, notes that historical records show that the emperor preferred painted enamel wares with bodies of copper or bronze, as well as porcelain and glass, hence very few cloisonné enamel objects were commissioned for the court under his reign. Only three other vases with Yongzheng reign marks are known; a covered dou with phoenix handles, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, mentioned by Quette, ibid,. p. 25, and also illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pl. 29. This dou not only highlights the excellent skill of the artisan but also perfectly matches Yongzheng’s sophisticated taste. It bears a very similar four-character incised mark on the base as seen on the present example. The other vessel with an impressed four-character Yongzheng mark is a vase, in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Mass, with the mark illustrated in Quette, op. cit., p. 26. Very minor losses to enamels, inside at the mouth slightly chipped, very minor wear to gilding