PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1715-1750

With its wide mouth and Imperial subject, this extraordinary bottle must have been made for the Court, and probably dates to the Kangxi period. The powerful and dynamic depiction of the long sinuous dragon is typical of the Kangxi period. Of the published overlay glass bottles in the two Imperial Collections, very few exhibit such fine, fluid carving and impeccable finish as that on the present bottle. A red overlay glass bottle carved with a design of the Three Abundances, but of similar shape and exhibiting somewhat comparable fine carving, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and is illustrated in Snuff Bottles - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2003, p. 37, no. 50.