Bottle ID: 00220

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YELLOW OPAQUE, CARVED IN ELEPHANT FORM

Date: 1750-1795

Height: 75 mm

Glass, opaque yellow, molded and carved in the form of a caparisoned elephant, its turned head with curled trunk, saddled with a fringed and tasseled howdah cloth incised with a diaper pattern, on which rests a bronze vessel, a ruyi head band around the shoulders; the legs and feet forming the base of the bottle; with original matching stopper.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection nos. 169 and 256.
Crane Collection nos. 210 and 326
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. 395-396, no. 856.
Sotheby's, New York, April 16, 1985, lot 47, Collection of Alice B. McReynolds, Part II.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
A & J Speelman Ltd.

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Published:

JICSBS, Autumn 2006, Front Cover

The group of glass bottles molded and carved in the form of elephants are well-represented in the Crane Collection providing some clues for the dating period which is given as spanning the second half of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century. While the glass colors, of red and yellow particularly, would suggest an eighteenth century dating, the larger size of most 'elephant' form bottles suggests a later date. While the Crane bottle is somewhat large, it is not as big as the Bloch example, nor indeed the J & J bottle which at 80 mm is the largest known.

The elephant with a vase or vessel on its back is a Buddhist symbol and forms the rebus for "peace and prosperity".

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