210 - A FIVE-COLOUR OVERLAY ON WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE PROBABLY BEIJING, 1750-1850

A FIVE-COLOUR OVERLAY ON WHITE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE PROBABLY BEIJING, 1750-1850 To Be Sold Without Reserve Of compressed ovoid form with a cylindrical neck, wide mouth, flat lip and concave oval foot surrounded by a narrow flat oval foot rim, carved as a single overlay of red, blue, yellow, brown and streaky green on a white ground, one side with a yellow butterfly beside a blue nandina plant growing in a yellow jardinière, the other with red lotus growing from formalized waves and rocks in the streaky green colour which forms part of the foot of the bottle Height: 5cm Provenance: Bangkok, 1966 Carlos E. Pardo, Geneva, June 2007 Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd, 25th March 2008, (a copy of the original invoice available) This is part of a group of distinctive glass overlays from the mid-Qing period which may have been made at the Palace workshops but might equally have been produced at private workshops probably in Beijing, although other centres are possible. The various production centres for overlay glass are still little understood and there may have been others aside from Beijing and Yangzhou. It is also possible that glass was carved at Suzhou and other centres for hardstone carving, since the same method of carving was used and as long as the lapidary in Suzhou had access to the glass bodies, carving them would present no greater challenge than carving a range of stones, including nephrite. One feature of this group of glass bottles is the combination of brilliant, gem-like colours with usually one colour that is streaked with brown. In the past dealers in China and Hong Kong have associated this distinctive group with the families of glassmakers recorded by Zhao Zhiqian in the late Qing dynasty, known as the Xin, or Yuan family but the original reference allows only for the fact that these families produced notable multi-coloured glass bottles in the Qianlong period, but does not really allow one to identify what sort of multi-coloured glass bottles Lotus, because of it two different characters as alternative words for it (he and lian), provides many possibilities for punning. Lian can be a pun for harmony, or he for peace, and combined with other elements, a number of possible meanings are evoked. Lian can also form a pun for nian so more than one lotus (lianlian) can imply ‘year after year,’ meaning that whatever other symbolism is present be continuous. Nandina (tianzhu, Nandina domestica), can be part of a variety of puns and rebuses but is generally associated with winter where its red berries and evergreen leaves are a welcome sight. It is also known as heavenly bamboo, and is sometimes used as a visual substitute for bamboo. Since the lotus stands for summer, and the nandina winter, the original intention may also have been to convey these two seasons 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