Bottle ID: 00367

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GREEN, EMERALD MALACHITE IMITATION W/COLORED SPLASHES

Date: 1750-1795

Height: 53 mm

Glass, of rounded bulbous form, of a brilliant emerald-green color, with a 'cobweb' network of opaque white and pale green splashes sandwiched between the outer and inner layers, in imitation of malachite.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Snuff Bottles - The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Vol. 47, Beijing, 2003, p. 60, no. 92.
Moss, Hugh M. [ed.]  Chinese Snuff Bottles:  6, from the Collection of the Rt. Hon. The Marquess of Exeter, K.C.M.G., 1974, p. 56, G.1.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Sotheby's, New York, September 15, 1998, lot 89
Neal W. and Frances R. Hunter
Dorothea Esty, 1971
Lilla S. Perry

Exhibited:

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

It is highly likely that this bottle was made as a set in the Palace Workshops, and perhaps intended for bestowal at one of the festivals.  The example in the Exeter Collection is of exactly the same height and form as the Crane bottle and is manufactured in precisely the same manner.  In this technique, known today as the sandwich technique, the interior patterning, in this case marbled opaque white, is caught between an outer and inner layer of glass.  These visually dramatic bottles are often described as imitating malachite; however, it is much more likely that they were made to imitate the newly found and highly prized jadeite that had appeared at the Court in the latter part of the eighteenth century.  Examples also occur using this same technique but with blue glass sandwiched with white, said to imitate lapis lazuli.

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