Lot 1056
Treasury 5, no.917 (‘Fertile Link’)
HK$75,000

Transparent green glass streaked with cinnabar-red, and translucent white glass; with a flat lip and recessed, slightly convex foot surrounded by a protruding flat foot rim; carved as a single overlay with a continuous design of a pond growing with lotus plants and arrowroot
Attributable to the imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1750-1790
Height: 4.55 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.65/1.07 cm
Stopper: glass, carved with a formalized shou (‘longevity’) character; glass collar

Provenance:
Yi Lin Ko, Tientsin (1982)
Gerd Lester (1986)

Published:
Kleiner 1987, no. 87
Treasury 5, no.917

Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993

While Sale 6, lot 168> was very obviously an outstanding example of the core group of these palace bottles, the same cannot be said of this one. It indicates a shift towards a more fringe style for the group.

The carving here is well rounded, finished to a high standard, and displays impressive artistry, but it betrays a hint of the uneven ground plane typical of the broader imperial group to which we link it. In addition, although it has a foot rim—and a crisply cut one at that—the colour is not confined neatly to it, but spreads onto the foot itself.

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.