Lot 133

Lot 133
Treasury 5, no. 797 (‘Imperial Gift’)
HK$112,500

An octagonal yellow glass snuff bottle

Translucent yellow glass; with a flat lip and recessed, slightly convex foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; the body with octagonal facets with a superimposed, faceted, formalized wrapping
Attributable to the Imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1700-1760
Height: 5.05 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.6/1.4 cm
Stopper: chalcedony; gilt-silver collar

Provenance:
Eric Young
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 28 October 1993, lot 1013

Published:
Kleiner 1995, no. 115
Treasury 5, no. 797

Exhibited:
British Museum, London, June-October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July-November 1997

This is a meiping (‘prunus-blossom vase’) form that has been faceted. It is more typical of the standard porcelain shape, complete with a flared neck, but the faceting is both unusual and intriguing, and the concept appears to be a formalized version of a wrapped vessel. As a decorative motif, wrapping was quite common on Imperial porcelains from the Yongzheng and Qianlong era, and we suspect it to have been the inspiration for the upper plane of faceting here.

Attribution to the Imperial glassworks is based on the faceting, Imperial colour, and shape, which we know was popular at court throughout the eighteenth century. We cannot absolutely rule out the possibility of a typical palace form, type of decoration, and colour being ordered elsewhere for the court, however. A similar form without the upper plane of ‘wrapping’ is known (see, for instance, a yellow version in Sotheby’s, New York, 1 July 1985, lot 42, and another, also in yellow, Christie’s, Hong Kong, 31 March 1992, lot 1585).