Lot 1184
Treasury 5, no.819 (‘Imperial Basket Case’)
HK$875,000

Semi-transparent yellow glass with a few scattered small air bubbles; with a flat lip and concave foot; carved with a continuous basket-weave design
Imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1740-1830
Height: 6.6 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.59/1.77 cm
Stopper: gilt copper of ‘official’s hat’ shape with integral finial and collar, chased with a formalized floral design

Illustration:
Watercolour by Peter Suart

Provenance:
Gerry Mack
Janos Szekeres
Sotheby’s, New York, 5 June 1987, lot 41 and front cover

Published:
Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 3, p.55, pl. Z
Stevens 1976, no. 187
JICSBS, Spring 1987, p. 1
JICSBS, Autumn, 1987, p.30, fig. 1
Art at Auction,1987, p. 380
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, exhibition poster, October 1987
Sotheby’s, New York calendar poster, June, July, August 1987, reprinted on the cover of JICSBS, Winter 1993
Arts of Asia, September-October 1990, p. 97, fig. 39
Kleiner, Yang, and Shangraw 1994, no. 65
Kleiner 1995, no. 114
Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, (illustrated folder, cover), Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July-November 1997
JICSBS, Winter 2000, p. 13, fig. 40
Treasury 5, no.819

Exhibited:
New Orleans Museum of Art, October 1980
Hong Kong Museum of Art, March-June 1994
National Museum, Singapore, November 1994-February 1995
British Museum, London, June-October 1995
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, July-November 1997

The basketweave design, popular at court from the mid-Qing period, may have originated well before that period. References to oil-basket glass snuff bottles are found in the Yongzheng archival records as early as 1723, although it is likely that the characterisation often refers to the shape of the bottle rather than to this kind of basketweave design, especially where inlay work is mentioned. See Sale 2, lot 56 and Sale 6, lot 184 for examples in other materials. We can be certain this design was still being made imperially in the Daoguang period. It appears on an extraordinary enamelled porcelain bottle made during the latter part of the Qianlong era, complete with reign mark (Kleiner 1999, no. 138 and Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 5, p. 74, fig. 88).

Owing to its impressive provenance, this is one of the most frequently published and exhibited bottles in the collection. It is a strong candidate for a Qianlong date. The relatively low intensity of the yellow is reminiscent of Sale 5, lot 133: it is probably among the earlier shades of yellow produced at the court, but also likely to have remained in continued use thereafter. Genuine early basketweave bottles in yellow glass are extremely rare, although see another in Kleiner 1990, no. 7. A spate of modern copies of this design in yellow glass has appeared during the last two decades, several of which have appeared in print, but we have been unable to find any other genuine examples. They also exist in other colours (see Sale 2, lot 71, Moss, Graham, and Tsang, 1993, no. 352, and Stevens 1976, no. 159, for instance), but even these are infrequently found. Given the proliferation of basket-weave bottles in other materials, we were surprised to find so few in yellow glass.

The matching of design to form here is spectacular, with each vertical strand of wickerwork tapering elegantly towards foot and neck in order to adjust them to the curving surface. Because the compressed form is so radically different from the bulbous form that it emulates (that of a container for liquid, possibly oil, encased in protective wickerwork wrapping), there is of necessity some departure from realism at the narrow sides.

The bottle was certainly blown, probably into a mould, but there is no evidence that the basket-work design was included in the mould; it must have been added at the jade workshops, where the requisite lapidary skills were available.

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.