PROBABLY IMPERIAL GLASSWORKS, BEIJING, 1740-1800

Of the various colors of gold-splashed glass which so fascinated the Court during the 18th century, green appears to be among the rarest. This is a particularly fine example and probably dates from after 1741 when the Jesuit de Broussard (working at the Imperial Glassworks) discovered how to make aventurine glass (see chronological list in Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 1, Glass, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 76). Before this time, the glassmakers at the Court relied on European-made aventurine glass.

For another example of a gold-splashed green glass bottle, see the Qianlong-marked example illustrate in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p. 206, no. 249. Another from the Blanche B. Exstein Collection was sold in these rooms, 21 March 2002, lot 2.