Bottle ID: 00060

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WHITE W/RED OVERLAY, IMPERIAL, CARVED W/MALLOW FLOWER

Date: 1750-1820

Height: 56 mm

Glass, of rounded form with sloping shoulders, the milk-white body overlaid in red and carved with a mallow flower on front and reverse, each side carved with a scrolling pattern depicting a tied bow and ribbon, the footrim carved in red.

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. 258-259, no. 123.112.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang.  The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. 2, p. 625, no. 378.
Kleiner, Robert.  Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection, 1997,
p. 106, no. 70.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Richard A. Bourne Co., Inc., Massachusetts, December 14, 1988, lot 111
Mrs. J. Gerald Mayer

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

This bottle is from an interesting group of glass overlays which appear to have some connection to the Palace Workshops.  All of them have a slightly opaque overlay color, usually red or blue, which is carved in low relief against a milk- white ground.  The design is very delicate, generally with thin trailing branches, tendrils or stalks.  The majority of this group have a naturalistic design on them such as mallow flowers, gourds or prunus.  This, in itself, differs from the usual subject of Palace Workshop glass items which tend to be more formal with stylized designs.  Stylistically, the bottle above leans more towards a Palace Workshops attribution than most of its contemporaries with its sides unusually carved with a tied bow and ribbon.  The design of the mallow flower-head is also unusual on this bottle in that the majority of bottles with this subject are carved with six over-lapping petals, rather than the five shown here.  However, the mallow flower, or kui flower, has only five petals so the example above is  botanically the correct one.

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