PROBABLY IMPERIAL, PROBABLY PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1750-1820

Details

**A CARVED EMERALD-GREEN GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
PROBABLY IMPERIAL, PROBABLY PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1750-1820
Of compressed form with flat lip and recessed, convex foot surrounded by a footrim made up of elements of the design, each narrow side carved with a chi dragon, their tails forming the footrim, pearlized glass stopper and coral collar
2 15/64 in. (5.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Y.F. Yang & Co., Honolulu.

Exhibited

Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver, 1992.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

This bottle is one of a well-known group of glass bottles with chi dragons carved on their narrow sides. Most are of a beryl-green color, but they are found in sapphire-blue, ultramarine-blue, purple and occasionally in other colors. This bluish emerald-green color is unique among them. They are distinguished by being carved from solid blocks of glass rather than being blown, hence they are heavier, indicating that they were made to imitate hardstones. With their ubiquitous chi dragon decoration, and the existence of related bottles in such precious stones as tourmaline, beryl and aquamarine which are attributed to the Court, the entire group is reasonably ascribed to the Palace workshops and the mid-Qing period.

See the footnote to lot 287 for more on the eighteenth-century trend to simulate precious materials in glass.

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