Bottle ID: 00654

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RED RUBY, CARVED W/BASKET WEAVE DESIGN

Date: 1750-1850

Height: 66 mm

Glass, of flattened rounded form with a slightly flared neck, of clear ruby-red tone, carved overall with a continuous basket weave design to simulate a woven basket container, the foot similarly carved, the weave tapering to a rope-twist border around the shoulders.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 280
Crane Collection no. 278
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 65, no. 169.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. II, p. 588, no. 352.
Snuff Bottles - The Complete Collection of Treasure of the Palace Museum,
Vol. 47, Beijing, 2003, p. 144, no. 214.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Wong Tan, China, October 2004

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

The 'basket weave' design derived from an imitation of large vessels that needed to be protected with an exterior casing of woven material such as wicker. The majority of bottles carved with a 'basket weave' pattern are made from white nephrite, although examples exist in other colors of jade and other materials such as agate, quartz, amber and even bowenite. Glass basket weave bottles are amongst the rarest of those found in other materials with the colors restricted to red, yellow, blue and white. Given the range of 'early' glass colors and the examples in jade in the Palace Collection, it is reasonable to give this glass group an attribution to the Palace also, although in other materials it is clear that this design was used throughout the Qing dynasty. In form, this bottle is somewhat bulbous with a broad weave and an unusual arrangement of the weave itself.

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