Bottle ID: 00510

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TURQUOISE, OCTAGONAL W/RAISED CONVEX FACETED PANELS

Date: 1710-1760

Height: 34 mm

Glass, of small octagonal faceted form, with four raised convex faceted panels on the front and reverse.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 627.
Snuff Bottles of The Ch'ing Dynasty:  Catalogue of an Exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, p. 66, no. 59.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Wang Ning, Beijing, January 2004

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Opaque turquoise was a popular choice in the glass workshops in the Palace from the early eighteenth century, presumably because of the Court's fondness for the real material.  This bottle appears to be crafted in a unique shade of turquoise which is very mottled and pitted in appearance, perhaps in an attempt to imitate the material.  Zhang Weiyong records the following from the twentieth day of the sixth month, 1732:

Note from the Yuanming yuan that the Yongzheng Emperor is dissatisfied with the color of one turquoise glass snuff bottle, because it is darker than the real material.  He instructs that it be broken and recycled as inlays for other works of art described as 'Eight Offerings'.

Intriguingly, there is one turquoise snuff bottle in a European collection which is of a small size and which has an authentic Yongzheng nianzhi mark on the base.  It is ironic that this bottle now has acquired the patination of many years and is, itself, darker and more green than it originally would have been!

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