Bottle ID: 723

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CARVED, IMITATING REALGAR, MENG HAORAN

Date: 1730-1800

Height: 64 mm

Glass, of flattened, rounded form with a cylindrical neck and with a neatly carved oval footrim, of swirling red and orange tones in imitation of realgar, carved in relief using the red overlay over an orange ground, with a continuous scene, on one main side with Meng Haoran astride his mule beneath a pine tree, his attendant following behind carrying a branch of blossoming prunus; the reverse with a crane perched on a rocky outcrop underneath the branches of a blossoming prunus tree, beside craggy rocks.

Similar Examples:

The Crane Collection, nos. 362 and 927
Lawrence, Clare. Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Dick Hardy Collection and other sources, 1991, p. 27, no. 53.
Seattle Art Museum, 1998, Bottles of Delight: The Thal Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, p. 42, no. 14.
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection, 1993, Vol. II, pp. 609-610, no. 366.

Provenance:

A private Southern Californian Collection
Jin Hing Co., CA.

 

Glass imitating realgar was very popular in the eighteenth century and there seems to have been a connection to the Imperial workshops, at least in the first half of the period. There is a realgar glass piece in the Imperial collection in Beijing dating from the Yongzheng period, and several with Qianlong nianzhi base marks. Meng Haoran (689/691–740) was an important Tang dynasty poet, who influenced Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu, because of his focus on nature as the subject for his poetry. Despite his brief pursuit of an official career which ended abruptly when he was perceived to have offended the emperor in his writing, Meng Haoran mainly lived in and wrote about the area in which he was born and raised, in what is now Hubei province. 

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