Bottle ID: 00267

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RED RUBY, ROUND W/FLATTENED SIDES

Date: 1740-1780

Height: 57 mm

Glass, of swirling transparent ruby-red tones, of flattened circular form tapering to a long neck with a wide mouth, and with flattened sides and base.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection nos. 265 and 269.
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. 422-423, no. 869.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Alexander Brody
Joseph Baruch Silver

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

When writing in the nineteenth century about the development of snuff and snuff bottles, in the previous century Zhao Zhiqian quotes from "The Xiangzu biji" of Wang Shizhen who states: "Glass is used to make bottles in which to store snuff.  These bottles come in many different shapes, and the colors include red, purple, yellow, white as well as others.  The white ones are like crystal and the red ones are like rich red or purple jade, all extremely delightful.....All these are manufactured in the Imperial Household Department."

This elegant symmetrical form, with its straightened sides and even circular wide mouth, is deceptive in its simplicity, showing that the Palace Workshops had achieved a level of control in their glass-making in the first half of the eighteenth century.  This particular example, while lacking a mark, can be favorably compared to the ruby-red glass bottles of a similar form inscribed with 'Wanya xuan' marks, lending credence to the idea of that group of glass bottles also being a product of the Palace Workshops.

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