A PAIR OF BLUE AND WHITE VASES COPYING VENETIAN GLASS

A similar example in the Princesshof Museum, Leeuwarden, is illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, op.cit., pl.107; see also A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, p.201, fig.12 for the slightly smaller pair sold in these Rooms, 5 March 1979, lot 128; and R. Krahl and J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol.III, p.1019, pl.2181 for one of three similar bottles. This must have been one of the most fragile types of object given as a sample to Chinese potters to copy, unless they were expected to reproduce an engraving of one of these typically-shaped exceptionally thinly-blown glass vases with characterstic 'crimped' handles (pinched with pliers when still unset, to create impressed patterns). A similar single vase was sold in these Rooms, 30 October 1989, lot 178; and another slightly larger sold in these Rooms, 7 November 1994, lot 9.