1730-1780

This well-carved overlay glass snuff bottle is decorated in the Palace taste, with panels flanked by mask and ring handles. The style and quality of the carving places it within the eighteenth century, however H. Moss et al. note that it is impossible to know if this type was done in Palace workshops or perhaps by a skilled Palace artisan who had returned to a local workshop. The quality of the carving can be compared to contemporary hardstone and jade works, which had continued high standards of craftsmanship throughout the eighteenth century. A similar overlay bottle of more circular form, with mask handles and a panel on either side, is in the J & J Collection, illustrated by H. Moss et al. in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. I, New York, 1993, pp. 606-7, no. 364. See, also, a red-overlay elongated version of the present bottle illustrated in R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from The Burghley House Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, no. 34.