Description
Glass; the white body with a wide mouth supported on a matching foot rim, the sides overlaid in five colours on one side with a bat swooping above sprays of finger-citron and peach, with two Chinese characters, representing the sun and the moon on the shoulders, the reverse with a butterfly hovering above sprays of melon and pomegranate.
Multi-coloured glass overlays were still being produced in the late nineteenth century as evidenced by the example in the Bloch collection with the Suyun daoren hall-mark which has been documented to that period (Treasury 5, no. 996). This bottle is attractively decorated but there is a stiffness to the elements of the design which points to a later date of manufacture.
