A CARVED REALGAR GLASS BOTTLE

Plain realgar glass snuff bottles were made in large numbers throughout the eighteenth century, a large proportion of them apparently at the court to be distributed as gifts. By the mid-Qing period, there must have been many in circulation, and it began to occur to carvers to decorate them, since in most cases they were uncarved overlays, with a surface layer of brighter color. A bottle such as this, with obvious mid-Qing carving, may predate the carved decoration by several decades.
For a similar, carved realgar glass bottle made at about the same time, see B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, no. 192.