QIANLONG INCISED FOUR-CHARACTER MARK ABOVE AN INVENTORY MARK ZHENG AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

It is known from the imperial records that in the seventh year the Qianlong reign, the emperor commissioned for cloisonne enamel vessels to be made and inscribed with additional characters from the Thousand Character Classic. During the seventh to the eighth year the characters: tian, di, huang, yu, zhou, ri, yue ying, cheng, su, lie, zhang, lai qiu, dong, run, yu, cheng, sui, lu, lu, yang, yun, teng, zhi, yu, dia, jie, wei, yu, kun, gang, zhu, cheng, ye, qiang, chen, guo and hao, were used. For a discussion, see Zhang Rong, Reverence and Perfection, Magnificent Imperial Cloisonne Enamels from a Private European Collection, Christie's Hong Kong, 2013, pp. 8-9.