Bottle ID: 187

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TRANSPARENT, THIN, FLAT, CIRCULAR

Date: 1730-1800

Height: 66 mm

Crystal, superbly hollowed, the clear flawless stone of flattened circular form, with shoulders sloping to an everted flared mouth, with flattened sides tapering to a thin slightly concave foot.
Probably imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection no. 500
Crane Collection no. 921
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. I, p. 188, no. 105.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 36-37, no. 11.
Sotheby's, New York, October 27, 1986, lot 187, Collection of Janos Szekeres, Part I.

Provenance:

Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Bernard Wald

This seemingly simple bottle is fashioned from a piece of flawless, clear rock crystal. Its shape, with its formal integrity, is highly unusual in crystal, more often occurring in chalcedony or white jade. It is known that the Qianlong emperor, in addition to his love of jade, also had a great liking for flawless crystal and ordered a number of pieces to be made, probably by the jade carvers in the Palace. A flawless crystal brush pot with a Qianlong yuyong (for Imperial use) mark, formerly in the collection of George and Mary Bloch and illustrated in Hugh Moss, Arts From the Scholars' Studio, no. 130, is evidence of this. Whilst it is impossible to give the same high-ranking designation to this bottle, it is probable that this example was made in the Palace.

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