Lot 72

Lot 72
Treasury 5, no. 772
HK$216,000

Imperial Favour

Opaque and semi-translucent, variegated orange and yellow-ochre glass (known as ‘realgar-glass’); with a flat lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding convex footrim; the foot inscribed in relief seal script, Yi Jin zhai (Studio where the Jin [dynasty calligraphic heritage] is Preserved), set in a recessed rectangular cartouche
Attributed to the imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1780–1823
Height: 5.3 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.54/1.32 cm
Stopper: coral; pearl finial; turquoise collar



Illustration: watercolour by Peter Suart

Lot 72 Provenance:
Hugh Moss (1987)

Published:
Snuff Bottles of the Ch’ing Dynasty, no. 81
Treasury 5, no. 772

Exhibited:
Hong Kong Museum of Art, October- December 1978

Lot 72 Commentary
The Bloch Collection includes two bottles with wholly convincing Yi Jin zhai marks (see Treasury 2, no. 358 for the other). We explained under that entry that the Yi Jin zhai belonged to Yongxing (1752–1823), the eleventh son of the Qianlong emperor who, in 1789, became the First Prince Cheng. Serving in a number of posts under his father from 1779 onwards, he accompanied him on several official tours (for further biographical details, see Treasury 2, no. 358). Since the publication of these examples there has been an unpleasant rash of bottles far less credibly inscribed with this hall name, some, indeed, added to old agate bottles with decoration recently carved. Collectors would be prudent to avoid catching this rash. We would not claim that there can be only two genuinely marked bottles bearing this studio name, but we believe that others published since are either forgeries or, at best, highly questionable.

Belonging to the prince, being of realgar-glass, and bearing imperial style mask-and-ring handles, this bottle justifies an attribution to the imperial glassworks. Although the mark does not imply that the bottle was specifically made for the prince, we think it probably was. Under high magnification it becomes clear that the style of carving and polishing of the mask-and-ring handles is identical to that of the mark, the two appearing to have been executed at the same time, in the same lapidary workshop. While the remote possibility remains that Yongxing found an old, plain realgar-glass bottle and ordered the lapidary to add both the mask-and-ring handles and the mark, this seems unlikely. The masks (and, of course, the mark) were added subsequently to any bottle blown into a mould, whether hours or decades later. Quite apart from the obvious logic of this, the handles supply supporting evidence. Where the masks have been cut from the existing, fairly thin walls of the bottle, they are surrounded by areas of glass which, viewed with transmitted light, are seen to be not only much thinner, but of translucent ruby-red rather than the opaque orange of the main body. We have mentioned the use of ruby-red in the manufacture of realgar- glass elsewhere (see under Treasury 5, nos. 703 and 704), and since no obvious layer of this colour is revealed among the concentric circles round the mouth, we assume that it was a part of the mixture revealed only where the glass is thin enough to allow translucence.