34.2.655 Tongzhi Turquoise Translucent, slightly variegated turquoise-blue glass; of elongated pear shape with a wide mouth, flat lip and protruding, flat, oval foot; the foot inscribed in wheel-cut, regular script Tongzhi nianzhi (‘Made during the Tongzhi period’) Imperial, 1862-1874 Height: 9.6 cm Mouth: 1.18/1.72 cm Stopper: mother-of-pearl; turquoise finial; glass collar Provenance: China, April 2004 Tongzhi Imperial marks are rare on glass snuff bottles.  It was a short reign but one during which the deprivations of the previous decades and the Taiping Rebellion were overcome and Imperial arts enjoyed a brief swan-song of revived quality before the dynasty collapsed under its own weight in 1911.  Known as the ‘Tongzhi Revival’ in the study of glass, the Court again produced Imperial wares, although where they were made is less clear since the destruction of the Summer Palace and one of the main Imperial glassworks in 1860.  The mark here is typically crude for nineteenth-century Imperial inscriptions, inherited from the wheel-cut marks of the Qianlong period where the constraints of the spinning wheel on calligraphic fluency were accepted and somewhat crude marks appeared on Imperial wares of the highest quality. The quality of the glass, however, and the form are both delightful and while large, the shape is unusually elegant for a late glass bottle.