Lot 102

Lot 102
Treasury 5, no.899 (‘Whispering Ruby’)
HK$187,500

A ruby-red and pale green glass snuff bottle

Transparent ruby-red and transparent pale, milky green glass, each with a few scattered small air bubbles; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding rounded footrim; carved as a single overlay with mask-and-ring handles
Attributable to the imperial glassworks, 1740-1780
Height: 5.97 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.66/1.5 cm
Stopper: gilt-bronze of ‘official’s hat’ shape with integral finial and collar, chased with a formalized floral design

Provenance:
Marian Mayer (collection no. 316)
Richard Bourne, Hyannis, Maine, 14 December 1988, lot 27
Robert Hall (1989)

Published:
Hall 1989, no. 51
Treasury 5, no.899

Exhibited:
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, October 1989

This unique combination of colours incorporates a more transparent version of the whisper-green glass bottle in this collection, attributable to the imperial glassworks and the early Qianlong period (Treasury 5, no. 788). An unusual and distinctive colour, the latter is reasonably attributed to the same source, but here other reasons strengthen our resolve. The mask-and-ring handles are of characteristic palace style, their circular rings being typical of the early to mid-Qianlong period. The outer lip-rim was apparently a standard feature at the court on jade and other hardstone snuff bottles, and there is no reason why it should not occur in glass at the same time, perhaps as an experiment. This seems to be one of the earlier known glass bottles displaying the overlay upper neck-rim that was common on later glass bottles, and particularly in the Yangzhou school we once labelled with the name of one of its important late-nineteenth-century patrons, Li Junting (actually pronounced Li Yunting). Finally, the shape is a modified meiping (‘prunus-blossom vase’), so popular at court. The only hint of a mid- to later Qianlong date is found in the slightly careless matching of the overlay colour to the footrim, but this must be viewed with a little common sense. A footrim perfectly matched to the overlay colour may have been the earlier standard, but given the problems involved in blowing a bottle with the colour properly aligned, then carving it to match while retaining formal integrity, not all early examples could have lived up to the ideal. In contrast, we see with the Yangzhou school that, although the standard for the day was a somewhat carelessly matched footrim, the glass workers were, on occasion, quite capable of achieving a perfect match.

In this case, the mask-and-ring handles define a ‘narrow side’ that is in actuality no narrower than the main sides. The shape of the bottle without them is not compressed at all, but a meiping fully in the round. Although unobtrusive, this rare little bottle is exquisitely well conceived and made. A restrained masterpiece it may be, but a masterpiece nonetheless.