Page 215 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013
P. 215

The present lot is depicted with a she-shaped pendant on each     The colour combination with the design of the she pendant in
side. A she(韘) is an archaic archer’s ring first used during the  the present lot is thus rare and unusual. A related snuff bottle
Shang Dynasty; the earliest example was excavated from the        in a similar pattern but with different colour combination,
Shang Dynasty tomb of Fu Hao. It underwent a long process         ruby-red overlay on milky ground, is illustrated by H.Moss,
of development and became a less practical but decorative         V.Graham, K.B.Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles:
ornament in a more elaborate and flattened form. It remained      The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.5, Glass, Hong
popular during the Western Han Dynasty.                           Kong, 2002, p.433, no.874. Also compare a green overlay on
                                                                  white glass snuff bottle with similar design in the Muwen Tang
The combination of cinnabar-red overlay and turquoise-blue        collection, illustrated by S.Kwan, Glass Snuff Bottles, Hong
glass became fashionable particularly towards the end of the      Kong, 2009, p.382, no.293.
18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The turquoise-blue
background is evocative of the summer sky leading to the
typical design of landscape and outdoor scenes.

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