1775-1800

Details

**A VERY RARE GREEN AND WHITE OVERLAY PINK GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
1775-1800
In the form of a compressed gourd, carved through the overlays of white and green to the pink ground with a continuous design of two insects on a fruiting gourd vine, with five small double gourds amidst leaves and tendrils, the base of the bottle incised with two small concentric circles, jadeite stopper
2 3/8 in. (6 cm.) high

Provenance

Robert Hall (London 1979)

Literature

Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J& J Collection, vol. 2, no.
394

Exhibited

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

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 spectacular bottle belongs to a small group of similar bottles characterized by striking combinations of colors and delightful and fluent designs. They probably date to the early to mid-nineteenth century and may be connected in some manner with the Yangzhou school. They are usually of flattened spherical form and frequently decorated with a design of the metamorphosis of the silkworm. The present bottle, however, has a rare subject of insects on a gourd vine.

Other examples of this group are illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. A Miniature Art from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 118, and by B. C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 252. See, also, two other bottles of this type sold at Sotheby's, New York, 22 November 1988, lot 182 and 26 November 1991, lot 138, an unusual white on pink which is now also in the Bloch Collection.

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