122 - AN EMERALD-GREEN OVERLAY AND COLOURLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE IMPERIAL, PROBABLY PALACE WORKSHOPS, 1750-1820

AN EMERALD-GREEN OVERLAY AND COLOURLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE IMPERIAL, PROBABLY PALACE WORKSHOPS, 1750-1820 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of flattened ovoid form tapering to a cylindrical neck with a flat lip and recessed, convex oval foot surrounded by a protruding, flattened oval foot rim, carved as a single overlay of green on a white speckled colourless ground with a seemingly continuous scene but in fact two separate ones separated by rocky outcrops rising from the base at the narrow sides, one main side with a crane flying above a celestial palace rising from waves, the other with an egret standing in a lotus pond, the oval foot in the overlay colour, clear convex base Height: 7.8cm Provenance: Dynasty Arts, California, October 2006 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 19th March 2007, (a copy of the original invoice available) This spectacular glass overlay is of an unusual colour (emerald green overlays are among the rarer colours in any case, but are seldom as dark and vibrant as the green here). It was made in Beijing, and probably at the Court as part of eighteenth-century production of overlays, much of which was made at the Imperial glassworks and the Palace workshops (depending upon whether additional carving of designs, such as here, was needed). The style of carving, with its confident, well rounded, substantial relief and auspicious subject matter, would all suggest a late-Qianlong date and a Palace origin, although late-Qianlong style in carving was carried over by momentum into the Jiaqing reign and in some cases even into the Daoguang The subject matter is all auspicious, and generally so, allowing presentation to any deserving individual – a common feature of Imperial snuff bottles of the Qing. An (yi) egret (lusi) together with green (qing) lotus (lian) constitute the rebus: >[May you be] incorruptible throughout [your career]= (yilu qinglian). A single egret with lotus seeds can also mean >[May you win] the top places in the successive examinations.= The sea (hai) with a house (wu) and a crane holding a tally (chou) in its beak form a rebus for the expression >Adding tallies to the immortal=s abode above the sea= (haiwu tianchou), a subtle expression used to wish people many happy returns on their birthdays. According to the Shanghai cishu chubanshe, in juan 2 of Dongpo zhilin (A Collection of Writings by Dongpo), the Northern Song scholar Su Dongpo (Su Shi, 1037-1101) recounts the story of three old men chancing to meet, and inquiring after each other’s age, one responded that he could not remember his age, but recalled that in his youth he had been a friend of Pangu (the legendary first being on the earth). Another said that whenever the sea had transformed into mulberry fields, he had put aside one tally; now ten houses had been filled with tallies. Based on this anecdote, the Chinese frequently use the expression haiwu tianchou to convey the wish for longevity 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