Lot Essay
The striking color of this bottle is very rare and has a distinctive transparency and pearl-like luster. Another glass bottle of identical material and color published in the J & J Collection and illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J & J Collection, no. 334, confirms its Imperial origins as it bears the Imperial reign mark Qianlong yuzhi (Made by Imperial Command of the Qianlong Emperor). Both of these bottles are thinly blown and have identical foot rims, and must have been produced during the same period at the same glassworks. A third bottle, of different shape but of essentially the same type of glass, and likewise attributed to the Beijing Palace Workshops, is illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The White Wings Collection, p. 72, no. 41. Otherwise, this distinctive color is extremely rare in Chinese glass.
The amusing stopper is one of several known which were presumably made in the same workshop during the nineteenth century. These stoppers are characterized by the use of ruby-red and emerald-green glass, sometimes in combination, and depict either frogs or twisted stalks. In all cases, they are manipulated molten glass, not carvings.
The amusing stopper is one of several known which were presumably made in the same workshop during the nineteenth century. These stoppers are characterized by the use of ruby-red and emerald-green glass, sometimes in combination, and depict either frogs or twisted stalks. In all cases, they are manipulated molten glass, not carvings.