137 - A SMOKEY TURQUOISE AND COLOURLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE 1770-1900

A SMOKEY TURQUOISE AND COLOURLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE 1770-1900 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of compressed ovoid form with a slightly flared cylindrical neck, concave lip and recessed, convex oval foot surrounded by a protruding, flattened, oval foot rim, the three blue colours twisted into the colourless glass during the blowing to resemble hanging fabric or drifting incense smoke Height: 5.8cm Provenance: Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 30th August 2005, (a copy of the original invoice available) This unusually marked glass is reputed to have come from a tomb in North China. Burials grew exponentially through the Qing dynasty as the population grew in peace-time, and during the mid-nineteenth century were accelerated by the death tolls of the Opium Wars and Tiaping Rebellions, particularly the latter which involved massive loss of life. Snuff takers would be buried with their favourite bottles so they could continue to snuff in the afterlife, and often, such bottles were those received as gifts from the Court, since these so often represented little intrinsic value, but high honour, hence the quantity of Imperial glass bottles in tombs. During the latter part of the Qing, however, there is no indication that the Imperial glassworks continued unabated to produce snuff bottles for distribution and the picture is less clear. Although we know there was a decline in quality during the Daoguang period in glass carving, prompting the Xianfeng Emperor to despair and instruct them no longer to carve subjects since they couldn’t do it well, there may have been no such decline in glass blowing and, in any case, under the Tongzhi revival, the industry apparently was reborn and able to produce fine works again. Many of the bottles from tombs will be from the early Qing, but many others should come from later-Qing tombs, and bottles such as this may represent the nineteenth century continuation of Imperial distributions, or be private products from the nineteenth century 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