Lot 1173
Treasury 5, no.817 (‘Enveloping Peace’)
HK$25,000

Transparent golden-yellow glass; with a flat lip; carved with a lotus leaf wrapped around the base of the bottle, creating a naturalistic foot, the narrow sides with mask-and-ring handles
1740-1810
Height: 6.35 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.60/1.42 cm
Stopper: glass; vinyl collar

Provenance:
Elisabeth and Ladislas Kardos
Sotheby’s, New York, 1 July 1985, Lot 39
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1992)

Published:
Treasury 5, no.817

A small series of bottles exists in this style, the base of the bottle being contained in a lotus leaf, most of them also having mask handles of typically imperial style.

The glass here is very well purified, leaving no elongated air bubbles by which the process of manufacture may be judged, but in addition to the relatively light weight, the inside seems to have a natural fire polish resulting from the blowing process. The slightly rougher drilled cylinder of the inner neck stands out in contrast to this natural polish. A widespread phenomenon on glass bottles, this would occur on blown examples only, since if the whole of the interior were hollowed out by the lapidary, there would be no difference in finish.

One of the best-made examples of the design, this is a lovely, pale golden-yellow that resembles the colour used in certain courtly yellow-on-yellow overlays and some monochrome bottles (see, for instance, Sale 2, lot 153 and Sale 6, lot 263).

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.