A FINE AND RARE PALE GREEN OVERLAY WHITE GLASS BOTTLE
A FINE AND RARE PALE GREEN OVERLAY WHITE GLASS BOTTLE

1770-1850

Details
A FINE AND RARE PALE GREEN OVERLAY WHITE GLASS BOTTLE
1770-1850
Of elongated flattened form, the single overlay carved with a continuous design of orchids growing from a rocky ground with a relief inscription in draft script - 'The [reflection of the] moon in the water is exceedingly pure and beautiful' - followed by the name Jiting, stopper
2 7/8 in. (7.38 cm.) high
Provenance
Sotheby's London, 6 March 1979, lot 196 (color frontispiece)
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
Literature
100 Selected Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J & J Collection, front cover and no. 31
JICSBS, Autumn 1989, front cover
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 396
Exhibited
Christie's, London, October 1987
Christie's New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003
Further details
END OF SALE

Lot Essay

It is unclear whether Jiting, which may be translated 'Pavilion for Compilations' or 'Studio for Editing', is a studio name or a hao, or art name, as some scholars sometimes adopted a studio name as a personal name. Although it is not recorded as the name of an artist or a studio, it can at least be concluded that this bottle was made, or the poetic inscription composed, either by Jiting or at the Jiting.

This superbly carved bottle does not appear to fit comfortably into any of the better-known stylistic groups. The composition is arranged with impeccable formal integrity and the high-relief carving, which is fluid and very painterly, shows great technical skill. The use of high-relief, opaque glass on an opaque white glass ground somewhat hints to the group of overlay glass bottles attributed to Yangzhou, but there does not appear to be any evidence of that school doing single-color, high-relief work. The texturing of the stylized rock work beneath the first line of calligraphy, using a series of short, parallel lines placed at an angle, is similar to that of a large group of chalcedony and other hard-stone bottles produced during the Qianlong period and into the nineteenth century of the group described as 'Group B' by Hugh Moss in Chinese Snuff Bottles of the Silica or Quartz Group. The bottle may be a product of the same area that made the hard-stone bottles.

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