Bottle ID: 00622

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BLUE, DOUBLE GOURD W/AVENTURINE SPLASHES

Date: 1740-1800

Height: 64 mm

Glass, of flattened double gourd form, with a long neck tapering to a wide mouth, the opaque blue glass suffused with irregular aventurine splashes.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Crane Collection nos. 89, 294, 331, 485
Sotheby's, New York, September 15, 1998, lot 8, The Neal W. and Frances R. Hunter Collection.
Sotheby's, New York, March 23, 2004, lot 2, Collection of Robert and Molly Hsieh.

Provenance:

Asian Art Studio
Robert Kleiner
Michael Hughes LLC.
Mrs. Richard Thomas of Hagerhill, New York

Exhibited:
 

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Opaque blue and golden star (aventurine) glass are both colors listed in the Archives relating to the items ordered by the Zaobanchu. It appears that opaque colors, such as this blue tone, are a product of the Qianlong period while the golden star glass appears before then. In 1705, in the forty-fourth year of his reign, during his Southern tour, the Kangxi Emperor made a bestowal gift on the senior official of Suzhou of seventeen glass pieces. The Archives list that among them were some objects made in imitation of lapis lazuli which had arrived at the beginning of the eighteenth century along the Silk Road from Afganistan. Aventurine glass was very popular in the Qianlong period, not only because of its connection to a stone considered precious by the Manchus, but also because of their liking of European glass of the same period. In 1773, the Archives list an order for the Paint and Wood workshop to make a stand for one vase of blue golden star glass indicating that this combination was already favored by the Court. Twenty years earlier in 1753, the Archives also list a snuff bottle to be made in green golden star. This shows that the glass workshops were already using aventurine glass not only as a monochrome color but also in combination with other colors.

The double gourd form was a popular choice for snuff bottles in any material, being a highly auspicicous symbol with a myriad of different meanings. Its general meaning is related to blessings and abundance, including the wish for many sons. When empty, a natural gourd was used as a vessel for medicine, being associated with immortality. The Daoist Immortal Li Tieguai is often depicted carrying a gourd or uncorking it, as the gourd has the potential to ingest the world's depravity.

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