Page 171 - September 20 2021 Chinese Works of Art Bonhams NYC

(two views)

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
260
A SMALL TRANSPARENT PALE-AMBER-YELLOW GLASS JAR Transparent amber glass vessels appear to have been made in
Qianlong Mark, possibly Beijing Imperial workshops much smaller numbers than the ubiquitous opaque lemon yellow
Of squat form with rounded sides and very short waisted and glass favored by the Imperial glass workshops. Yellow was one of
everted rim, with a simple flat circular base centered by the four- the colors produced there almost immediately after their inception
character wheel-cut mark, Qianlong nian zhi, the glass of an attractive in 1696. No known surviving yellow glass predates the Qing period.
transparent amber tone. Court records show yellow as a listed color from at least 1702.
2 1/16in (5.3cm) across Yongzheng and Qianlong marked examples can be found in the
Palace collection today and according to Hugh Moss, Victor Graham
$8,000 - 12,000 and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and
George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 1, Glass, p. 133, no. 700, there
或為北京宮廷造 透黃料玻璃小瓶 《乾隆年製》款 is an intriguing reference from the Imperial archives for 1727 (seventh
month, twentieth day) describing a color of glass as ‘yellow like honey-
amber. The yellow is unambiguous in this description, and since its
Another smaller water pot of pomegranate shape made from a similar transparency was one of the most revered qualities of amber, we may
transparent amber-yellow glass was sold at Christie’s, New York, assume this to mean transparent yellow. The author’s also illustrate a
15 September 2017, lot 1050. It too had a wheel-cut four-character transparent amber-yellow glass bottle that they date to between 1720
Qianlong mark to the base. and 1830, with a likely Imperial workshops provenance.

FINE CHINESE CERAMICS, WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS | 169