TWO BLUE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLES

1770-1900

Details

TWO BLUE GLASS SNUFF BOTTLES
1770-1900
The first, Imperial Glassworks, Beijing, 1770-1780, is of flattened rounded form and suffused with aventurine flecks. The second, 1800-1900, is of flattened, rounded form and raised on an oval foot. Together with a small blue glass dish of quatrefoil shape.
1 7/8, 1¾ in. high, and 1½ in. wide (4.8, 4.5, 3.9 cm.), carnelian and coral stoppers, bone spoon (2)

Provenance

Aventurine-flecked bottle: Nine Dragons, Hong Kong, 2 December 1984.
Plain blue bottle: Eldred's, Cape Cod, Massachusets, 24 August 1988, lot 10.

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Lot Essay

Sapphire-blue was among the first colors used for glass snuff bottles produced by the Imperial Glassworks after its inception in 1696. The wide mouth of the first bottle may indicate an early attempt at the palace to use aventurine glass in a blue ground, perhaps by using fragments of imported aventurine glass before the Chinese craftsmen were able to make it at the Palace Workshops.

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