Lot 263
Treasury 5, no. 952 (‘Snowstorm Dragon’)
HK$25,000

Transparent golden-brown and semi-transparent yellow glass, the former with a few scattered air bubbles, the latter suffused with them and with small white flakes; with a concave lip and protruding flat foot; carved as a single overlay with a chi dragon on each main side, one with a long, sinuous protuberance from its body held in its mouth
1800 – 1900
Height: 4.3 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.51/1.19 cm
Stopper: coral

Provenance:
Robert Hall (1993)

Published:
Kleiner 1995, no. 188
Treasury 5, no. 952

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

The combination of yellow on yellow seems to have evolved at some time during the Qianlong period, probably in the middle or second half of the reign. There are various colour combinations, the most common being a range of translucent yellow over a transparent ground that varies from a distinct, golden yellow to this golden brown—which is very reminiscent of the colour of some topaz, which is called huang yu in Chinese. (We must always remember that the Chinese word huang refers to both yellow and more of the hues we would call ‘brown’.) The unambiguous yellow of the overlay, however, is among the features allowing us to assume that this is imperial. The yellow overlay here is suffused with white flakes, creating a snowstorm overlay—an extremely rare feature.

We suspect that this is from the first half of the nineteenth century, but it is a standard rule, given our current level of detailed understanding of Qing glassmaking, that anything appearing to be early nineteenth century might also have been made in the last years of the eighteenth century.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.