Lot 1101
Treasury 5, no.949 (‘Fulfilled Desires’)
HK$47,500

Transparent emerald-green and translucent white glass; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding rounded foot rim; carved as a single overlay with an identical design on each main side of a chi dragon beneath a bat, two raised bosses, a fylfot, and two highly stylized lingzhi heads in the form of ‘C’-scrolls, the narrow sides with circular rope handles
1770-1820
Height: 7 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.75/1.10 cm
Stopper: jadeite; glass collar

Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1982)
Belfort Collection (1986)

Published:
Kleiner 1995, no. 169
Treasury 5, no.949

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

While a number of features of this bottle indicate a mid-Qing date, we think it is perhaps more likely to date from the late Qianlong period than the early nineteenth century. In spite of its refined style, with remarkably thin carving of some of the relief details, it is rather formulaic. The dragon has become more a symbol than a beast moving gracefully through space, as it is on Sale 4, lot 80. By the late Qianlong period these creatures had been carved at court for so long and so often that forms became standardized. We cannot escape the impression of a carver simply selecting one of many standard options, for this dragon is rendered with little regard to how it might move in space, or how its musculature would be accentuated by such movements. The most telling point, however, is that the overlay colour kisses the edge of no more than half the protruding foot rim, the rest being white. Although the carving is finely controlled, a foot rim like this clearly indicates that standards had dropped dramatically from the heights of the early and mid-Qianlong reign, something unlikely to have happened before the last part of the reign.

The rope rings are a very rare feature and may also strengthen a likely imperial attribution, since rope designs were a popular court staple. The same applies to such archaistic elements as the raised bosses and formalized ‘cloud’ motifs, which might also be read here as simplified ruyi.

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.