4 - A WHITE GLASS ENGRAVED SNUFF BOTTLE, ATTRIBUTED TO THE IMPERIAL GLASS WORKS, 1730-1800

A WHITE GLASS ENGRAVED SNUFF BOTTLE, ATTRIBUTED TO THE IMPERIAL GLASS WORKS, 1730-1800 To Be Sold Without Reserve The engraving Ziqing, 1845, the translucent white glass; of compressed, elongated ovoid form with a flared, cylindrical neck, flat lip and slightly recessed, flat, oval foot surrounded by a protruding, rounded, oval footrim; engraved on one main side with a mandarin duck beneath lotus plants with aquatic grass, and on the other with a four character inscription in seal script ‘The Finest qualities of the Pond,’ followed by, in clerical script, ‘Made at an auspicious time in the first ten days of the mid-Spring month of the yisi year,’ and the signature, Ziqing ke (‘carved by Ziqing’) and one seal of the artist, Ziqing shi (‘Mr. Ziqing’) Height: 6.1cm Provenance: Kavin Tian, October 2004 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 30th August 2005, (a copy of the original invoice available) Ziqing was almost certainly one of a group of late-Qing engravers of glass who, working with a diamond point, engraved the surface of glass bottles and other media with scholarly designs and inscriptions. Such workers often had a supplier of blanks upon which to work, but it made no difference to them whether the bottles they engraved were new or old and many are known with later engraving on old bottles, which is the case here. Probably when it was engraved, but possibly before, the original flat foot was changed to give it a footrim. A number of early bottles had a protruding, flat foot with no rim and at some time it was decided that a rim would make it more elegant, so the foot was neatly recessed to give it a rim. It was often the case that fashion in snuff-bottles changed, and older bottles were adjusted to suit. A case in point is that prior to the mid-Qing, roughened interiors to crystal bottles were the standard, while shiny ones became fashionable in response to more sophisticated snuff connoisseurship (the shiny surface prevented moisture in the snuff from being absorbed into the roughened wall of the interior, keeping the snuff in better condition), so in the second half of the Qing dynasty large numbers of early bottles with rough interiors were polished to make them smooth. In this case, of course, the details of the bottle are somewhat irrelevant, since the art has been shifted from that of the glassmaker with his simple, formal statement in white glass, to that of the glass engraver, Ziqing, and his pictorial and calligraphic art Ω This Lot was imported from outside of the UK, under the Temporary Admission regime 5% import VAT will be charged on the ‘hammer” and 20% VAT will be charged on the ‘buyer’s premium