Bottle ID: 00484

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PURPLE PALE, CARVED W/TWO CHARACTERS

Date: 1750-1850

Height: 60 mm

Glass, of flattened rectangular form with rounded shoulders and sloping at the base to an concave oval foot, of semi-opaque pale purple tone, carved in low relief on one side with two characters, tianzhi, in seal script.

Similar Examples:

Hall, Robert.  Chinese Snuff Bottles II, 1989, p. 58, no. 40 (Marian Mayer Collection).
Sotheby's, New York, March 17, 1997, lot 235, The Dodge Collection.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Universal, Taipei, Taiwan, July 2003
The Lin Collection

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

The two characters are interpreted as reading tianzhi, 'Seal of Heaven'.  It is unlikely that this would be an individual's name since it would have been against the literati tradition to use one's name as the predominant decoration on a piece.  No other glass bottle of this type seems to be recorded, although one can find parallels in crystal examples.  The Marian Mayer bottle cited above is very similar in execution, though not in form, albeit with the two characters 'daji' carved on both sides of the bottle rather than on one side.  The Dodge example, although in crystal, has a frosted interior achieved through rough polishing, as does this glass example, which has the effect of highlighting the characters on the outer surface.

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