Bottle ID: 00674

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GREEN OLIVE, TRANSPARENT, MINIATURE OF ROUNDED FORM

Date: 1736-1795

Height: 37 mm

Glass, of small bulbous cylindrical form, the shoulders tapering to a widely flared mouth and at the base to a neatly carved foot, of a transparent olive-green tone.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 498.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang.  A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 254 - 255, no. 104.

Provenance:

Robert Hall

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

This miniature bulbous bottle is not often found in this form in glass.  However, the Bloch Collection houses a very similar example in nephrite, albeit with mock mask and ring handles.  The Bloch jade is inscribed on the base in seal script Qianlong nianzhi and as such, is likely to have been a product of the Palace Workshops.  This form is taken from larger vessels seen in the Palace in bronzes, jades and ceramics, although the size of the neck and mouth for example is designed to suit the function of a snuff bottle, holding in the snuff and keeping it fresh.  Specifically it appears that the form of the Crane bottle is adapted from a traditional early- Ming period porcelain vase, which was copied throughout the eighteenth century in ceramics and occasionally in snuff bottles.

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