Bottle ID: 726

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YELLOW ON WHITE OVERLAY, DRAGONS, SHOU

Date: 1780-1850

Height: 63 mm

Glass, of flattened ovoid form, with shoulders sloping to a cylindrical neck and with a neatly carved oval footrim, carved using the mustard-yellow overlay over a milk-white ground, on each main side with scrolling confronted dragons surrounding a shou medallion, the sides carved with mock mask and ring handles.
Possibly imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no.s 64, 658 and 915

Provenance:

 

In a number of ways this is a puzzling bottle. Were it not for the formalized subject matter of kuei dragons surrounding a shou medallion, one might be tempted to look at the overlay color against the milk-white ground and attribute the bottle to the Yangzhou School of carving. However, the subject matter is classically imperial, if less formal than one might usually expect. The Yangzhou School of carving is noted for its naturalistic subject matter and rarely for depicting dragons, much less these very specific type of dragons surrounding a shou medallion, symbolic of longevity.

 

 

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