34.2.469 Turquoise-Blue Bamboo Translucent, streaky turquoise-green glass; of compressed spherical form with a waisted neck, concave lip and protruding, concave oval foot; carved on each main side with a raised, convex circular panel, the narrow sides with formalized bamboo-stem pattern Imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1720-1780 Height: 5.32 cm Mouth/lip: .8/1.24 cm Stopper: gilt-silver, chased with a formalized floral design, with integral collar Provenance: Universal Arts and Antiques, Taipei, January 2002                                                                              This form seems to have evolved during the early eighteenth century as part of a process of blending Western faceting techniques into Chinese decorative designs and forms. The narrow sides here may not resemble bamboo stems, but through a series of other examples (discussed in Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 5, Glass) they can be seen to be highly stylized versions, the horizontal lines representing the enternodal segments, and the verticals, the typical, vertical depression which rises from them into the stem. Turquoise is a colour which figures in the Yongzheng records: 1732 (sixth month, twentieth day) Note from Yuanming yuan that the Yongzheng Emperor is dissatisfied with the colour of one turquoise-glass snuff bottle, because it is darker than the real material. He instructs that it be broken, and recycled as inlays for other works of art described as ‘Eight Offerings.’ (Elegance and Radiance. Grandeur in Qing Glass. The K. F. Lee Collection, p. p. 74.) It was a colour, however, that was produced at Boshan centuries before the snuff bottle was invented, so is likely to have been a product also of the Kangxi Imperial glassworks. This is a popular form from the first half of the eighteenth century at Court, and this may well be Yongzheng or early Qianlong in date.