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Bottle ID: 00200
WHITE W/BLUE OVERLAY, GOURD SHAPE, FLOWERS & ROCKWORK
Date: 18th century
Height: 57 mm
Glass, of double gourd shape, overlaid in blue on a milk-white ground, carved with a continuous scene around the upper and lower sections with peony, lingzhi fungus, bamboo and magnolia issuing from convoluted rockwork, below a butterfly and bat in the scrolling clouds, the neck with a slightly everted blue overlay rim.
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.
Similar Examples:
Lawrence, Clare. Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom - The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1996, pp. 256-257, no. 122.60.
Kleiner, Robert. Treasures from the Sanctum of Enlightened Respect, 1999,
p. 131, no. 112.
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. 510, no. 916.
Provenance:
Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Christie's, New York, October 18, 1993, lot 172
The Reif Collection
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
This delicately carved glass bottle exhibits a level of refinement beyond most of its contemporaries. It is certainly part of the rare small group of charming, but somewhat crude, blue or rose-pink overlays on a milk-white ground that are of a flattened rounded shape and which bear a four character wheel-cut incised reign mark of the Qianlong period. This group is generally carved with a limited choice of subject matter of floral motifs or Qilong. A number of examples of these are in the Imperial Collections in the Palace Museum in Beijing and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. It is likely that this group would have been made to Imperial order for one of the annual festivals. In the above example, the stellar quality of carving and the uncluttered placing of the design on this unique shape result in a bottle that transcends even its own Imperial grouping.