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Bottle ID: 00082
GREEN W/RED OVERLAY, FAN-TAILED CARP
Date: 1750-1850
Height: 60 mm
Glass, of flattened elongated ovoid form with sloping shoulders, the clear dark green color overlaid in cinnabar-red and carved on both sides with a fan-tailed carp swimming above frothy waves; the sides carved with mock mask and ring handles.
Attributed to Beijing.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 252-253, no. 120.104.
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. 388, no. 852 and Part 3, p. 710, no. 1016.
Provenance:
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
The Monimar Collection
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Sotheby's, New York, June 5, 1987, lot 46
Janos Szekeres
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
The combination of a clear emerald-green color with an opaque cinnabar-red color was used on bottles from both Beijing and Yangzhou, emphasizing the fact that often glass blocks of different colors would be sent to the glass workers to be melted down and made into bottles and other objects. Areas such as Boshan in Shandong Province had a long tradition of glass making, sending artisans upon request to the Palace once the Imperial glasshouse commenced operation. What is intriguing here is that this example suggests that despite the existence of the bolichang (the glass factory) in the Palace, blocks of colored glass continued to be sent there for melting down and fashioning into objects such as snuff bottles.
What differentiates the resulting snuff bottle from a 'Yangzhou School' glass overlay bottle is stylistic variation. This bottle can be easily attributed to Beijing, yet is highly unusual in the use of the green color as the ground rather than a 'snowflake' glass base and the cinnabar-red as the main overlay color rather than being used as a highlighting color (a common characteristic of both the Beijing and Yangzhou Schools).