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A RARE IMPERIAL SMALL ENGRAVED MOULDED CLEAR GLASS DISH
A RARE IMPERIAL SMALL ENGRAVED MOULDED CLEAR GLASS DISH

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

细节
A RARE IMPERIAL SMALL ENGRAVED MOULDED CLEAR GLASS DISH
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The thin, transparent dish with flat base and outward-curving sides decorated on the exterior and underside of the base in fine diamond-point engraving with birds in flight amidst fruiting grape vine
4¼in. (11 cm.) diam.
来源
Spink & Son Ltd. , London, April 1989
出版
C. Brown and D. Rabiner, Clear as Crystal, Red as Flame, China Institute in America, New York, 1990, no. 10
C.F. Shangraw and C. Brown, A Chorus of Colors: Chinese Glass from Three American Collections, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1995, no. 20
展览
The Minor Arts of China, Spink & Son IV , London, 1989, no. 108

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拍品专文

It has been noted that the crizzling of the glass, particuarly on the interior of the present dish, suggests a Kangxi period dating as glass production at this early stage tends to have an excess amount of alkali in the preparation, which causes the decomposition of the glass, known as crizzling. Varying and controlling the amount of alkali creates opaque, translucent or transparent glass.

The strong European style in the design of the present dish was probably influenced by the Jesuit missionaries who assisted at the imperial workshops, particularly the Dutch Jesuit, Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), who was known to be close to the Kangxi Emperor. On closer inspection, the delicate foliage and swirling tendrils clearly show the ragged lines made by diamond-point engraving as opposed to the use of the wheel-cut technique which would have produced a smoother finish. It has been suggested that the ruffling of the surface caused by an overall scratching method is typical of a Dutch technique, rather than the long parallel scratches that characterise Venetian diamond-point engraving, cf. The Minor Arts of China, IV, Spink & Son, London, 1989, p. 84. Diamond-point engraving was also used on a pair of clear glass cups which are similarly decorated with birds and grapevine, and dated to the Kangxi period, in The Corning Museum of Glass, and illustrated by C. Brown and D. Rabiner, Clear as Crystal, Red as Flame, China Institure in America, New York, 1990, no. 11.