Bottle ID: 00483

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PINK W/BLUE OVERLAY, CARVED W/A PHOENIX

Date: 1736-1795

Height: 84 mm

Glass, of opaque pink with a bright opaque blue overlay, carved with a phoenix on both sides of the bottle, each holding a lingzhi fungus in its claw, the curling tail feathers elongated to form the base of the bottle.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 125.

Provenance:

Robert Hall
Sotheby's, London, November 14, 2000, lot 41
The Baroness Jacobea Sapuppo, Italy
The Baroness D'Essen

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

This is a unique glass overlay bottle in many ways.  The form is previously unrecorded in glass although the Crane collection has a somewhat similar example in white nephrite carved in the form of an archaic phoenix.  The color combination is also rare although opaque pink glass occurs with other colors and as a monochrome color throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Opaque blue is also used as an appealing overlay color, recorded in the Palace Archives from the mid-Qianlong period.  This elegant bottle was never made to stand, once again emphasizing that these bottles were made to be used as well as collected; to be taken out and admired between contemporaries; and to serve as currency for favors extended.

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