Bottle ID: 00078
CLEAR W/SIX COLOR OVERLAY, DRAGONS
Date: 1780-1820
Height: 65 mm
Glass, of rounded form, carved in six colors over a bubbly clear ground, with on each side writhing confronted dragons in red, green, blue and yellow with touches of black; the footrim in purple.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 264-265, no. 126.134.
Low, Denis S. K. More Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, 2002, p. 126, no. 115.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. II, p. 618, no. 374.
Provenance:
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Paula Hallett
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
At first glance, this bottle can be perceived as a four color overlay. A close inspection of the carving shows that there are touches of black to the extremities of the dragons under the yellow overlay, rather than on the same plane as the remaining colors. Most multi-colored overlay glass bottles have between two and five colors, but there is a sixth color of purple used for the footrim. The characteristic of a bold, straight-edged and thick oval footrim occurs on late Qianlong glass pieces often accompanying multi-colored decoration on the main body of the bottle. All of the colors shown here were used in the Palace Workshops from the early Qianlong period when glass objects with overlay decoration became prevalent, although it is likely that the use of more than one overlaid color occurred from the middle of the Qianlong period.
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