I.58
Bird in the Hand

Famille rose enamels on copper with gold; with a flat lip, concave foot, and flat foot rim; painted on each main side with a panel of European subjects of a woman with a child, one possibly intended as a girl holding aloft a bird in one hand, each in a setting of buildings and trees and other foliage, framed top and bottom with formalized petal borders, the neck with a band of formalized floral scroll; the foot inscribed in regular script Qianlong nian zhi 乾隆年製 (‘Made in the Qianlong era’); the interior covered with white enamel, the exterior exposed metal all gilt, the interior covered with white enamel
Stopper: gilt bronze, chased with a formalized floral design; original
Imperial, attributed to Guangzhou, 1736–1795
Height: 4.7 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.8/1.4 cm       

Provenance:
Edward T. Chow
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 5 May 1994, lot 1564
George Tseng, Taipei
Christie’s, New York, 26 March, 2003, lot 113
Robert Hall, London, October 2003