Bottle ID: 00673

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SNOWFLAKE W/RED OVERLAY, FAN-TAILED CARP

Date: 1736-1795

Height: 81 mm

 

Glass, of tall elongated teardrop form, carved using the red overlay on a snowflake ground with a fan-tailed carp; its head with flowing whiskers on one side of the bottle in pursuit of a pearl, its body wrapping around the base with its tail appearing on the other side of the bottle.

Attributed to Beijing.

 

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 63.
Chang Lin-sheng.  Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 1991, p. 221, no. 295.
Christie's, London, October 12, 1987, lot 41, The Dwyer Collection.

 

Provenance:

Robert Hall
Sotheby's, New York, April 1, 2005, lot 359
Avrina Pugh

 

Exhibited:
 

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

 

 

 

Despite the high relief carving and the solid overlay surface, this bottle retains its fluidity giving the appearance of a carp plunging through the water.  The transparent snowflake ground adds to this effect as the bubbles in the ground have a similarity to bubbly water after a fish has swum through it.

The Chinese word for fish (yu) is a rebus for affluence and as such, the fish is a symbol of wealth.  In the past, an abundance of fish in the water was symbolic of a good harvest to come.  Even today, many Chinese homes and businesses have fish in tanks or bowls at their entrance to encourage the flow of money into the building.

 

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