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Bottle ID: 00184
RED RUBY, OCTAGONAL W/CONVEX OVAL PANELS
Date: 1730-1760
Height: 37 mm
Glass, of ruby-red tone and of small octagonal faceted form, with a convex oval panel on the front and reverse, and with a wide mouth.
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 218-219, no. 103.217.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 2002, Vol. 5, Part 2, pp. 310-311, no. 810.
Provenance:
Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Joseph Baruch Silver
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
The Yonglu Xianje of Zhao Zhiqian states:
"Bottles to hold snuff used to be made in such extremely small sizes that they can contain only an ounce or so. These are ground and polished with consummate skill, so that the luster surpasses that of crystal.....Their shapes can be square, round, triangular, hexagonal and octagonal. Another point of difference is whether they have broad or narrow mouths."
This is one of the favored forms of the eighteenth century, evolving in size from smaller bottles, which held highly expensive snuff, to larger examples as the eighteenth century gave way to the nineteenth century. As with many "Palace" examples, however, this bottle is unique in its design, having a bulbous rounded panel on the main fascias rather than the more standard raised quatrefoil type. This example is of similar form and size to the enameled glass example in the J & J Collection (see The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle No. 185), which can be dated to the first half of the Qianlong period. Since the glass bottles would have been produced in the glass workshop before the J & J example was sent to the enameling workshop, they can be considered to be of a similar date. Unmarked wares from the Palace Workshops are common in the eighteenth century, being supported by a considerable number of similar forms, which bear marks from the Qianlong period, and on occasion, the Yongzheng period. These examples, with their classic ruby-red color and small size, allow for a possible earlier dating of this bottle to 1730 onwards.