A VERY RARE BLUE OVERLAY BUBBLE-SUFFUSED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE

细节

A VERY RARE BLUE OVERLAY BUBBLE-SUFFUSED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1730-1770

Finely carved through the vibrant sapphire-blue overlay with a beribboned endless knot surrounded by lingzhi, rocks and swirling clouds, the other side with a bat flying above a gnarled peach tree bearing ripe fruit, all on a bubble-suffused, slightly milky ground
2 7/16 in. (6.15 cm.) high

来源

Bess Cohen
Sotheby's New York, 3 October 1980, lot 68
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.

出版

Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, no. 363

展览

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, 2001 - 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

拍品专文

This outstanding bottle represents the earlier phase of overlaying in snuff bottles. The characteristics of this group include impeccable formal integrity, vibrant colour and superbly confident design and carving. The relief is unusually well rounded and conveys a strong sense of three-dimensionality. They have excellent plastic control of the design, careful undercutting and a smooth even finish. This bottle is one of the most impressive, with its sumptuous, gem-like colour and superb composition and carving.

The endless knot is one of the Eight Buddhist Treasures and symbolises longevity. Peaches and lingzhi are symbols of immortality, while the bat adds a wish for happiness during the long life wished upon the owner of the bottle.

For a closely related bottle from this group with the same combination of sapphire-blue overlay ona slightly milky ground and in the Bloch Collection, see A Treasury of Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, no. 921.