A SUPERB RED GLASS OVERLAY 'DRAGON AND PHOENIX' SNUFF BOTTLE

PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1715-1750

Details

A SUPERB RED GLASS OVERLAY 'DRAGON AND PHOENIX' SNUFF BOTTLE
PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1715-1750
The bottle is finely carved with a continuous design of a five-clawed dragon rising amidst clouds from turbulent waves and a fenghuang standing on a rocky outcrop from which a peony grows beneath clouds and the sun which is inscribed ri, 'sun'.
2 1/2 in. (6.45 cm.) high, stopper

Provenance

Hugh Moss Collection
The J & J Collection; sold at Christie's New York, 30 March 2005, lot 5

Literature

JICSBS, December 1977, p. 27, nos. 52 and 53
Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, New York/Tokyo, 1993, vol. II, no. 360.
Silver Kris, January 1997, p. 49, fig. 6

Exhibited

Hugh M. Moss Ltd., London, 1974
Christie's New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Snuff Bottles from China. The J & J Collection, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1996-1997
The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle: The J & J Collection, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, The Miniature World: An exhibition of snuff bottles from the J & J Collection, Taipei, 2002, p. 67
Poly Art Museum, The Art of Chinese Snuff Bottle: Selected Snuff Bottle Collection of James Li, Beijing, 2003, p. 107

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Ruben Lien

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Lot Essay

With its wide mouth and Imperial subject, this extraordinary bottle must have been made for the Court, and probably dates to the Kangxi period. The powerful and dynamic depiction of the long sinuous dragon is typical of the Kangxi period. Of the published overlay glass bottles in the two Imperial Collections, very few exhibit such fine, fluid carving and impeccable finish as that on the present bottle. A red overlay glass bottle carved with a design of the Three Abundances, but of similar shape and exhibiting somewhat comparable fine carving, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and is illustrated in Snuff Bottles - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 37, no. 50.

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