Bottle ID: 00264

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REALGAR, IMITATION, OCTAGONAL FACETED W/CONVEX PANELS

Date: 1730-1800

Height: 47 mm

Glass, of small octagonal faceted form, with two raised convex oval panels on each main side, the straight neck ending with a wide mouth, of swirling orange and brown tones, in imitation of realgar.

Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.

Similar Examples:

Snuff Bottles of The Ch'ing Dynasty: Catalogue of an Exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1978, p. 74, no. 82.
Kleiner, Robert. Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection, 1997,
p. 67, no. 36.
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1995, A Chorus of Colors: Chinese Glass from Three American Collections, p. 83, no. 52, fluted vase imitating realgar.

Provenance:

Clare Lawrence Ltd.
Alexander Brody
Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.

Exhibited:
 

Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007

Published:
 

Lawrence, Clare. The Alexander Brody Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, 1995, p. 59, no. 82
Brody, Alexander. Old Wine into Old Bottles: A Collector's Commonplace Book, 1993, pp. 134 and 161

The colors of realgar glass are richly varied reflecting not only the attraction of the original material that the glass copied, but also the inherent magical qualities that made the stone a favorite of the Daoists. Realgar glass survives in tones of vivid dappled red to almost a monotone orange such as the Crane example. Despite the seemingly large amount of realgar glass bottles extant today, no other similar example is published with convex rounded main panels. The Crane bottle represents the height of glass making in the Palace at a point where the integrity of form and material were combined to produce a deceptively simple but stellar work of art.

It was not only glass snuff bottles that were made in imitation of realgar, but also vases, dishes and other scholars' works of art. The example given from 'A Chorus of Colors' is a fluted glass vase with a base mark Qianlong nian zhi, helping to date the whole group of works of art including snuff bottles.

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