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Bottle ID: 00413
WHITE, OPAQUE MILK, UNENAMELED
Date: 1730-1780
Height: 50 mm
Glass, of flattened rounded form with tapering shoulders towards a wide mouth, and with a neatly carved footrim, of even opaque milk-white tone.
Imperial, attributed to the Palace Workshops, Beijing.
Similar Examples:
Stevens, Bob C. The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, 1976, p. 66, no. 178.
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, October 28, 1993, lot 1027, from the Collection of Eric Young, Part IV.
Provenance:
Hugh Moss [HK] Ltd.
Robert Hall, June 1999
Exhibited:
Annual Convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
Milk-white was one of the three 'white' colors available to the Palace Workshops artisans at least from the Yongzheng period onwards. The opacifying process was developed by the inclusions of tin oxide or calcium fluoride to the glass recipe rather than creating a surface texture which looked opaque as was previously done. This discovery increased the number of accessible colors and meant that, not only milk-white was available, but also any existing color that could become opaque, and more import antly resulted in the creation of the Qing Imperial color of opaque yellow. The Crane example with its color, wide mouth, form and detailing is a Palace bottle of the type that was usually decorated by enamellers at the Court. The bottle is comparable to the finest of enameled glass bottles from the early years of the Qianlong period, from which this plain version probably dates. Enamel 'blanks' occur rarely in both opaque and clear glass, and whether they were deliberately left in that fashion to be enjoyed for their simple elegant forms or the enameller just did not get to that point on the shelf is a moot point in itself.