Lot 137
Treasury 5, no. 923 (‘The Ideal Life ‘)
HK$175,000

Transparent sapphire-blue and transparent milky glass suffused with air bubbles of various sizes, including some large and elongated; with a flat lip and recessed, slightly convex foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; carved as a single overlay with a continuous scene of a man seated in a boat, a pot of wine beside him, while his boat-boy punts him past a bamboo grove on a rocky shore, the river crossed by an arched stone or brick bridge, the sun above seen beyond formalized clouds and carved as a yinyang symbol
1730-1780
Height: 6.37 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.86/1.33 cm
Stopper: amethyst; glass collar

Illustration:
Watercolour by Peter Suart

Provenance:
Edmund F. Dwyer
Christie’s, London, 12 October 1987, lot 43

Published:
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 104
Treasury 5, no. 923

Exhibited:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, October- November 1984
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March-June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994- February 1995

Similar in its material to Treasury 5, no. 922, this bottle also shares with that one a stylistically similar subject. The bamboos are rendered in identical fashion, with large leaves clustered in regular groups and falling in an overall umbrella shape. The same is true of the rock-carving, and both display an unusual lack of control of the overlay colour on the footrim. On its last outing, Kleiner also noted such similarities and proposed an example from the Bellis Collection as by the same hand, which we agree seems very likely. Here, yet again, we see the relative wide mouth for this group, which we have associated with the earlier phase of glass carving. See also under Sale 2, lot 69.

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.