Bottle ID: 00347

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YANGZHOU, WHITE, GRASSHOPPER & PLANTS

Date: 1770-1850

Height: 59 mm

Glass, of flattened rounded form, with shoulders tapering to an everted lip, and with a slightly concave base, decorated in famille rose enamels on a milk-white ground with on one side, a grasshopper perched on leafy floral sprigs; the reverse with a second grasshopper perched beside a radish and a leafy floral sprig, the two scenes divided on the sides by a tasseled cord from which a bat hangs; the neck with a circular band above a scrolling border; the base with an iron-red Guyue Xuan mark.
Attributed to Yangzhou.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 188.
Christie, Manson & Woods, St. James's, London, June 10, 1974, lot 58, The Ko Family Collection, Part IV.
Low, Denis S. K. More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, 2002, p. 21, no. 18.
Hall, Robert. Chinese Snuff Bottles VII, The Art of an Imperial Addiction, 1995, pp. 28-31, no. 4.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Sotheby's, Sussex, U.K., February 4, 1998

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Published:

JICSBS, Winter 2008, p. 11, figs. 14a and 14b
JICSBS, Spring 2006, p. 27, fig. 29

Other areas of China, including Yangzhou were involved in the production of enameling during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Whilst it is impossible at this stage to know exactly which enamel on glass bottles were made in Yangzhou, it is possible to categorize these bottles into specific groups. The bottles produced outside the Palace have distinct characteristics. The group to which this bottle belongs is enameled in a different style from bottles which are "Imperially" made, although some features, such as the neck borders, are reminiscent of a Palace style. The enamels are thinner, as would be expected from a commercial workshop where cost was a factor. The base mark on bottles of this group are either of a Guyue Xuan mark in seal script (as oppose to regular script on Palace enamel-wares) or a Qianlong nianzhi mark in seal script, generally written in a straight line (instead of within a square). The Crane bottle is a classic example of one of the non-Palace groups with its delicate design and naturalistic subject matter, often depicted on bottles produced outside the Palace in private commercial workshops.

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