Page 49 - The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part I

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A FOUR-COLOR-OVERLAY CLEAR GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, 1760-1820

The bottle is carved through the transparent pale blue, yellow, pale
blue-green and rose overlay to the translucent bubble-suffused
ground with nine sinuous chilong, their heads turned back to form an
oval or circular shape with their bodies and tails. The green chilong
have black streaks running through the head and the body. The foot
is formed by the long tail of the pale blue chilong.
2¡ in. (5.8 cm.) high, pink tourmaline stopper, pearl fnial

$4,000-6,000

PROVENANCE:

Belfont Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 1995.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 1770.

EXHIBITED:

Corning, New York, Corning Museum of Glass, 2007-2008.
Boston, International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, The
Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.

This bottle exhibits a standard overlay design of nine chilong or chi dragons
that was used on glass snuff bottles at the height of the Qing dynasty. The
imagery of nine dragons would have been considered auspicious.

For a related glass snuff bottle with six colors of overlay, and a discussion of
this group, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles,
the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 5, Part 3, Hong Kong,
2002, pp. 631-632, no. 980.

1760-1820年 御製雪霏地套四色玻璃九螭圖鼻煙壺

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