Footnotes

• Treasury 5, no. 850
  
  藍寶玻璃雕壽老觀太極圖鼻煙壺
  
  An aquamarine-blue glass 'Shou Lao' snuff bottle
  
  Transparent aquamarine-blue glass, with one or two small air bubbles; with a concave lip and recessed, slightly concave foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; carved on one main side with Shoulao, the God of Longevity, holding a gnarled staff to which a double gourd is attached while he holds the lower end of a scroll (its upper end held in the mouth of a flying bat) the centre of which bears a yin-yang symbol, his familiar deer reclining at his feet
  1750-1830
  Height: 5.1 cm
  Mouth/lip: 0.99/2.02 cm
  Stopper: coral; gilt-bronze collar
  
  Condition: possible repair to polish out chip on inside of footrim, small chip on outer footrim; miniscule chip on outer lip; otherwise, workshop condition
  
  Provenance:
  Paula J. Hallett
  Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1986)
  
  Published:
  Kleiner 1987, no. 85
  JICSBS, Winter 1995, p. 6
  Treasury 5, no. 850
  
  Exhibited:
  Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
  Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993
  
  One of Bob Stevens' favourite bottles was of aquamarine glass, carved from a solid block and decorated with five sages looking at a scroll bearing a yin-yang symbol (Stevens 1976, no. 1002). It can only have been from the hand of the same lapidary as this one, which is of the same sort of glass, carved from a solid block, obviously intended to imitate aquamarine in both colour and weight. There are a few genuine examples (although they have inspired several recent fakes), and they seem to have shared the creative impulse that resulted in a range of green and blue glass bottles imitating semi-precious stones and usually bearing chi-dragon decoration. We have resisted an attribution but, as so often with fine quality, early glass carvings, the imperial glassworks remains a likely source for the group.
  
  The bottles of this group are extremely rare and, since they have fostered forgeries, it is sometimes impossible to assess the authenticity of published examples. We know of one exact copy of this bottle, where the design and carving are reproduced almost stroke for stroke, but its colour is unnaturally good, being darker and thus more akin to a modern jeweller's ideal of the perfect colour for the stone rather than what would have been seen in mid-Qing China (Christie's, Hong Kong, 1 May 1994, lot 1020). The aquamarine available at that time, mostly from Xinjiang, was mainly of a rather pale colour, and that is what glassmakers would have sought to reproduce.
  
  藍寶玻璃雕壽老觀太極圖鼻煙壺
  
  透明海藍寶石藍玻璃，含有一兩小氣泡；凹唇，微凹斂底，突出圈足，足底完全接觸地面 ; 一正面浮雕壽星、鹿、蝠等
  1750-1830
  高﹕ 5.1 厘米
  口經/唇經： 0.99/2.02 厘米
  蓋： 珊瑚; 鎏金青銅座
  
  狀態敘述：圈足內沿或有修好的缺口，圈足外沿呈小缺口，唇外沿呈微不足道的缺口；此外，出坊狀態
  
  來源﹕
  Paula J. Hallett
  Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1986)
  
  文獻﹕
  Kleiner 1987, 編號85
  《國際中國鼻煙壺協會的學術期刊》, 1995年冬期，頁 6
  Treasury 5, 編號850
  
  展覽﹕
  Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
  Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993
  
  說明﹕
  這件煙壺所代表的一品種就如鳳毛麟角，贗品卻多。有一件冒仿品，好像是辛辛苦苦地琢出來的，只是材料的顏色太深﹕香港佳士得，1994年5月1日，拍賣品號 1020。乾嘉時期的海藍寶多半是新疆阿爾泰山和綏遠大青山開採的，顏色淺，當時仿海藍石的玻璃師傅一定要復製比較淺的顏色。
  
  

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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