A VERY RARE EARLY TRANSLUCENT AQUA GLASS CUP

HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)

Details

A VERY RARE EARLY TRANSLUCENT AQUA GLASS CUP
HAN DYNASTY (206 BC-AD 220)
The sides rounding upwards from the base to a double grooved band where the body begins to taper slightly towards the lipped rim, of bluish-turquoise colour, with some soil encrustation
3 in. (7.7 cm.) diam.

Provenance

Previously sold at Christie's New York, 1 December 1994, lot 350

Literature

B. Borrell, (in press), Trade and Glass Vessels Along the Maritime Silk Road
B. Zorn (ed.), Glass Along the Silk Road, from 200 BC to AD 1000, International Conference, Mainz, 11-12 December 2008, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz

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Lot Essay

This cup is an early example of blown glass in China. The shape of this cup is probably based on foreign examples brought into China during the Han dynasty. Compare the green glass cup of similar shape and slightly smaller size (5.8 cm. diam.) unearthed in Gui Xian county, Guangxi province in 1957, illustrated by Fan Shimin and Zhou Baozhong, "Some Glass in the Museum of Chinese History", R.H. Brill and J.H. Martin (eds.), Scientific Research in Early Chinese Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, 1991, p. 196, fig. 5, which the authors describe as a foreign import, as a chemical analysis showed that it did not contain lead, but is a potash-lime-silica glass.

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