Lot 40
Treasury 5, no. 897 (‘Favourite Year’)
HK$56,250

Transparent ruby-red glass and semi-transparent milky-white glass, both with some small air bubbles, some elongated; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding rounded foot rim; carved as a single overlay with a continuous scene of a lotus pond with formalized waves, with a rocky outcrop and cattails rising from them, and with twelve magpies, some in flight, some perched on the plants or on the rocky outcrop
1760-1820
Height: 6.8 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.70/1.65 cm
Stopper: jadeite; vinyl collar

Provenance:
Wing Hing, Hong Kong (1985)

Published:  
Kleiner 1987, no. 108
Treasury 5, no. 897

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

The birds here are carefully observed, each doing something individual, but betray a hint of stylization. The manner in which wings and tails are rendered no longer represents a life-like bird, but the imposition of an artistic personality on a general understanding of how birds look and behave. These are becoming caricatures of birds in flight which will culminate, eventually, in the birds of the Yangzhou School: as much flying smiles as they are birds, wing-tips, and tails invariably curving relentlessly upwards. Still, the bottle represents an elevated level of artistic and technical quality within the art form.

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.