Page 60 - Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Sept 2015

8068

8068
A COLLECTION OF SIXTY-FIVE GLASS ‘EYE’ BEADS
Zhou dynasty
Made from lead-barium glass, with vibrant blue bodies, some of iridescent tones, inset with
delicately formed balls, rosettes, spirals and dots of contrasting colored glass in yellow, white
and turquoise hues, the beads now strung on a cord to form a necklace.
1 1/4in (2.8cm) width of the largest
$10,000 - 20,000

周 攪色料眼紋珠六十五顆

The earliest known Chinese glass beads were crafted during the Western Zhou period, from
the ninth to eighth centuries B.C., perhaps as an attempt to imitate jade. Glass beads were
also imported to China from Mesopotamia in the Near East, and during the Eastern Zhou
period, glass ‘eye’ beads were admired as exotic, decorative objects and were placed in
aristocratic tombs to indicate high status. The key difference between Chinese and Near
Eastern glass beads was the higher lead content in Chinese glass.

The term ‘eye’ bead derives from the concentric circles of variously-colored glass layered upon
a glass core to create the effect of ‘eyes’. Examples can now be found in museums, including
blue beads dated to the Warring States period in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,
no. B62M32, and a brown glass bead also dated to the Warring States Period in the National
Palace Museum, Taipei, and included in the exhibition Sharing Treasures: A Special Exhibition
of Antiquities Donated to the Museum, no. Zheng-Za-000002. It is very rare to find a large
collection such as the present lot offered for sale.

58 | BONHAMS