Bottle ID: 00660

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SNOWFLAKE W/RED OVERLAY, FISH & LILYPADS

Date: 1750-1820

Height: 58 mm

Glass, of rounded bulbous form, the shoulders tapering to a straight neck with a wide mouth, and with a neatly carved splayed footrim, carved using the red overlay on an opalescent white ground, on one side with a fish swimming amongst aquatic weeds; the reverse with lotus leaves, pods and flowers rising from the muddy waters.

Attributed to Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Lawrence, Clare.  Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 248-249, no. 118.200.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Michael C. Hughes LLC

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

This bottle is part of a small group of readily identifiable overlays, which are charmingly simplistic in their style, but well executed.  The overlay color glass, when red, is of a paler tone than the ruby-red glass made in the Palace Workshops.  The blue overlay color on bottles of this group are usually of an inky-blue rather than the bright cobalt-blue of the eighteenth century.  It is likely, therefore, that the whole group is the product of one commercial workshop in Beijing.

The subject matter of fish and lotus is a classic one.  The lotus is the flower of summer and is the symbol of purity because it grows and blossoms from muddy water.  The combination of fish and lotus together is a continous wish for abundance or wealth year after year.

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