Description
Glass; of ovoid shape supported on a crisply carved raised foot rim of oval section, the shoulders carved with mask and ring handles, the body of clear golden amber colour, attributed to the Imperial glassworks, Beijing.
This bottle is of a highly distinctive and beguiling colour, possibly the ‘yellow like honey amber’ referred to in the Imperial archives of 1727. It is attributable to the Imperial glassworks on account of this colour and because like all the recorded examples, it possesses other characteristics of bottles made for the court, in this case the crisply carved mask and ring handles inspired by the decoration on archaic bronzes. A bottle of similar shape and colour is illustrated in Treasury 5, no. 700 and two more, decorated with mallows, another Imperial subject, ibid, nos. 842 and 843. A third example, also with mallows and with similar mask and ring handles to this bottle is discussed in The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, no. 357 and a faceted bottle is in The Nordic Butterfly Collection, no. 14.
