IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1730-1770

Details

**A SAPPHIRE-BLUE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1730-1770
Of compressed form with flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a footrim, coral stopper with turquoise glass collar
1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm.) high

Provenance

Wang & Co., Beijing, 2000.
Hugh Moss Ltd., 2000.

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

The elegant shape and symmetry of this bottle are representative of glass bottles made at the Palace Workshops, the form being a popular one from the Qianlong period, from which a series of reign-marked examples survive. For a ruby-red example of this shape, see Moss, Graham and Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass, no. 676; no. 700, a golden-yellow bottle; and no. 688, in peacock blue. See the note to lot 237 for a brief discussion on the production of sapphire-blue glass. Plain glass bottles from the Palace glassworks were extremely popular at Court and the Yongzheng Emperor is recorded as having used just such a bottle. According to the Chronological List in Moss, Graham, Tsang in A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass, p. 72, in 1728 (seventh month, fifteenth day) an order was received by the Palace workshops to copy the "style of the glass snuff bottles always used by the Emperor." At their completion, the bottles produced were recorded as having copied a "grape-colored glass snuff bottle."

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