Bottle ID: 00655

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BLUE, TRANSPARENT, SQUAT OCTAGONAL W/RAISED PANEL & PENTAGONAL FACETS

Date: 1770-1912

Height: 36 mm

Glass, clear blue, of squat octagonal faceted form, with a central raised circular panel surrounded by eight irregular pentagonal facets radiating from the central panel.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection nos. 57 and 217.
Xia Gengqi, Zang Rong.  Masterpieces of Snuff Bottles in The Palace Museum, Beijing, 1995, p. 76, no. 48.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Guwan cheng, Beijing, April 2005

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

The glassworks at the Imperial Palace were set up in 1696 by order of the Kangxi Emperor.  At this time, the glass workshops were organized by a Jesuit missionary, Kilian Stumpf and while he would not have been responsible for the design of pieces, the overseeing of European style artefacts such as this blue glass bottle would no doubt have pleased him.  Faceting clearly derives from Western styles and can be found in Bohemian glass from the same period.  Such was the popularity of this style that it appears to have continued throughout the Qing Dynasty, although generally bottles became larger and less refined as time went on.

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