Bottle ID: 00061

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CLEAR W/RED OVERLAY, BATS IN A ROUND YOKE

Date: 1730-1795

Height: 56 mm

Glass, of rounded form, tapering to a long neck, the clear bubbly body overlaid in red with a bat in flight on front and reverse, the sides and foot carved in red as a yoke encircling the bottle.

Similar Examples:

Chinese Jewellery and Glass.  Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1989, pp. 102 -103,
no. 175.
Hughes, Michael C.  The Blair Bequest - Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, 2002, p. 133, no. 157.
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, p. 280,   no. 792.
Hall, Robert.  Chinese Snuff Bottles II, 1989, p. 63, no. 45.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., Massachusetts, December 14, 1988, lot 166
Mrs. J. Gerald Mayer

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Very few bottles in any material boast such an unusual shape as this one.  The nearest example in form is the ruby-red monochrome glass bottle in the Bloch Collection (see No. 792 cited above) where it is suggested that the shape may either be derived from an ancient bronze vessel or from a carrying pouch for a snuff bottle.  The bottle above would also lend itself to either suggestion, but the idea of a pouch where the clear 'bottle' is sitting in the red 'pouch' is almost irresistible.  Like a cloth pouch, this bottle does not stand and must be held in the hand, as was fairly common in the Qianlong period.  A third, more fanciful representation would be that of two bats floating on a cloud, respectively symbolizing double happiness (shuangfu) and good fortune (yun).

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