QING DYNASTY, 1770-1850

It is unclear whether Jiting, which may be translated 'Pavilion for Compilations' or 'Studio for Editing', is a studio name or a hao, or art name, as some scholars sometimes adopted a studio name as a personal name. Although it is not recorded as the name of an artist or a studio, it can at least be concluded that this bottle was made, or the poetic inscription composed, either by Jiting or at the Jiting.

This superbly carved bottle does not appear to fit comfortably into any of the better-known stylistic groups. The composition is arranged with impeccable formal integrity and the high-relief carving, which is fluid and very painterly, shows great technical skill. The use of high-relief, opaque glass on an opaque white glass ground somewhat hints to the group of overlay glass bottles attributed to Yangzhou, but there does not appear to be any evidence of that school doing single-color, high-relief work. The texturing of the stylized rock work beneath the first line of calligraphy, using a series of short, parallel lines placed at an angle, is similar to that of a large group of chalcedony and other hard-stone bottles produced during the Qianlong period and into the nineteenth century of the group described as 'Group B' by Hugh Moss in Chinese Snuff Bottles of the Silica or Quartz Group, London, 1971. The bottle may be a product of the same area that made the hard-stone bottles.