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Lot Essay
Sandwiched glass bottles represent a popular staple at the Court during the eighteenth century. They are characterized by simple shapes usually blown into a mold, where distinctive colors and textures were created by fusing a layer of brightly colored or distinctively marked glass between two plainer colors, the upper one of which must be transparent to some extent.
For further discussion on sandwiched glass and its association with the mass production of snuff bottles to be distributed by the Court as gifts for various festivals and birthdays each year, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass, nos. 722-35.
The mask-and-ring handles, set high on the narrow sides of the bottle, seem to endorse the attribution to the Imperial glassworks at Beijing. They are typical of a range of similar mask-and-ring handles produced on a range of bottles for the Court during the Qianlong period, many of which remain in the Imperial collection.
This strawberry-pink color is probably derived from ruby-red glass made at the Court from the early eighteenth century onwards, but mixed with other colors. Ruby-red, and sandwiched pink glass were both popular Court staples, but this particular color is otherwise extremely rare.
For further discussion on sandwiched glass and its association with the mass production of snuff bottles to be distributed by the Court as gifts for various festivals and birthdays each year, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass, nos. 722-35.
The mask-and-ring handles, set high on the narrow sides of the bottle, seem to endorse the attribution to the Imperial glassworks at Beijing. They are typical of a range of similar mask-and-ring handles produced on a range of bottles for the Court during the Qianlong period, many of which remain in the Imperial collection.
This strawberry-pink color is probably derived from ruby-red glass made at the Court from the early eighteenth century onwards, but mixed with other colors. Ruby-red, and sandwiched pink glass were both popular Court staples, but this particular color is otherwise extremely rare.