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拍品专文
This bottle, with its simple, yet bold style, provides an interesting link between the enameled glass wares of the Palace workshops and those inscribed with enigmatic studio name of Guyue Xuan ('Ancient Moon Pavilion') which were also mostly produced in the Palace workshops.
The Guyue Xuan is the name of one of the halls within the Changchun Yuan (a series of Imperial gardens to the West of Beijing adjoining the Yuanming Yuan, known collectively as the Summer Palace). The Changchun Yuan was intended as a retirement home for the Qianlong Emperor, although he never took up full-time residence there. When the Guyue Xuan was completed in 1767, the Emperor ordered a group of wares for that particular pavilion which appears to have been mostly in enamel on glass. See P. Y. K. Lam, 'Studio marks in Imperial and Court Related Snuff Bottles', in The Imperial Connection. Court Related Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Humphrey K. F. Hui Collection, pp. 33-4.
This was a time of experimentation in enamels at the Court and here we see a reliance on simpler, decorative designs. The border design on this bottle would appear to have evolved from earlier Qianlong enameling style, such as that on a gold-ground bottle illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 15, and another earlier example illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, nos. 59 and 63.
An enameled clear glass bottle with similar subject and similar palette is still in the Imperial Collection in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan; see ibid., p. 78, no. 2. Bearing either a black or sepia-enameled four-character Qianlong mark in regular script, the bottle is clearly by the same workshops as the present example.
It is worth noting that such clear glass bottles were intended to be full of snuff powder which would have colored the inner surface, in effect turning into an opaque colored ground. Without the snuff, we are able to appreciate the distinctly positive textural dimension of the crizzling on the interior - a standard on early colorless and transparent glass from the Imperial glassworks, which persisted occasionally into the Qianlong reign and occasionally beyond.
The Guyue Xuan is the name of one of the halls within the Changchun Yuan (a series of Imperial gardens to the West of Beijing adjoining the Yuanming Yuan, known collectively as the Summer Palace). The Changchun Yuan was intended as a retirement home for the Qianlong Emperor, although he never took up full-time residence there. When the Guyue Xuan was completed in 1767, the Emperor ordered a group of wares for that particular pavilion which appears to have been mostly in enamel on glass. See P. Y. K. Lam, 'Studio marks in Imperial and Court Related Snuff Bottles', in The Imperial Connection. Court Related Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Humphrey K. F. Hui Collection, pp. 33-4.
This was a time of experimentation in enamels at the Court and here we see a reliance on simpler, decorative designs. The border design on this bottle would appear to have evolved from earlier Qianlong enameling style, such as that on a gold-ground bottle illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 15, and another earlier example illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, nos. 59 and 63.
An enameled clear glass bottle with similar subject and similar palette is still in the Imperial Collection in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan; see ibid., p. 78, no. 2. Bearing either a black or sepia-enameled four-character Qianlong mark in regular script, the bottle is clearly by the same workshops as the present example.
It is worth noting that such clear glass bottles were intended to be full of snuff powder which would have colored the inner surface, in effect turning into an opaque colored ground. Without the snuff, we are able to appreciate the distinctly positive textural dimension of the crizzling on the interior - a standard on early colorless and transparent glass from the Imperial glassworks, which persisted occasionally into the Qianlong reign and occasionally beyond.