PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1760-1820

Details

**A RARE FIVE-COLOR OVERLAY GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
PROBABLY IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1760-1820
Of compressed ovoid form with a recessed foot, carved through the emerald green, aquamarine, sapphire blue, golden yellow and ruby red to the bubble-suffused ground with a single overlay of nine chilong, each in a discrete color, tourmaline stopper
2 7/16 in. (6.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Vad Jelton Collection
John Siglow and Kenneth Brown Inc. 1985
The Neal W. and Frances R. Hunter Collection
Sotheby's New York, 15 September 1998, lot 73
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Exhibited

Christie's, Los Angeles 2003

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

For a very similar multi-color overlay glass bottle, possibly even by the same hand as the present example, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, vol. 5, Glass, no 981. See, also, two comparable bottles in the collection of Denis Low, the first very similar to the present example, illustrated by R. Kleiner, Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, p. 134, no. 115, the second carved with eight chilong rather than nine, illustrated by D. S. K. Low, More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, p. 126, no. 115.

This bottle is distinguished by extremely fine carving, suggesting an earlier phase of production, perhaps as early as the first half of the Qianlong reign.

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