Footnotes

Treasury 5, no. 727


寶藍夾層玻璃鼻煙壺


Blue of the Night

Translucent greyish, beige-streaked white glass with deep, olive-green inclusions (appearing as black in normal light), sandwiched between two layers of transparent sapphire-blue glass, suffused with small air bubbles; with a flat lip and flat foot
1720–1840
Height: 5.72 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.69/1.58 cm
Stopper: carnelian; gilt-bronze collar
Condition: small chip on the outer neck rim polished out, leaving a miniscule, polished indentation; similarly small chip polished out of the base just above the edge of the foot, also leaving a miniscule indentation; neither obtrusive. General relative condition: good


Provenance:
Hugh M. Moss Ltd. (1978)
Gerd Lester (1986)

Published:
Arts and Antiques, July-August 1983, p.71
Kleiner 1987, no.73
Arts of Asia, September-October 1990, p.97, fig. 31
Treasury 5, no. 727


Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May-June 1993

Commentary
This represents one of the most common forms for sandwiched glass bottles from the first half of the Qing dynasty; its narrow sides provide irrefutable evidence that it was blown into a mould. The angle of the body, observed from above, is tapered towards the narrow sides, creating a form which, while easy to achieve in a mould, would not only be unnatural for a freely-blown form, but also more difficult to achieve. However skilfully the lapidary may have finished the outside, removing any hint of the gap between the mould-lines, the inside betrays the truth. With realgar-glass bottles, often blown into similarly shaped moulds, we have seen how a thin layer of surface overlay is lost to the lapidary where it is blown into the gap between the mould-halves. This phenomenon rarely occurs in the case of sandwiched bottles, because the outer layer is always thick and even enough to allow for a little lapidary loss on the outside without revealing any difference in colour, whereas on the inside the line of the mould is clearly visible. Because of the gap between the mould-halves, the air inside forces the exterior wall into it but at the same time, creates an equivalent indentation inside, running along the mould-line. This is clearly visible here when the bottle is in the hand. On Treasury 5, no. 730 it is still more obvious on the inside and even apparent as a small ridge on the outside surface. The hint of a similar external ridge is also visible here.
Bottles of this type appear in many early collections and although they might still have been produced in the late Qing dynasty, it seems more likely that they represent a style of bottle popular mainly during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Several are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, entering the collection in 1901, having previously been in the Museum of Practical Geology. As non-mineral specimens, they were unlikely to have been acquired after 1880 (White 1990, pl. 66, where no. 5 is a type of glass related to this example, and pl. 67).

Although the outer layer of this bottle has been described elsewhere as colourless, it is in reality transparent sapphire-blue. This is evident from the white sandwiched layer of powdered glass which emerges at the mouth as a concentric circle and shows as pale sapphire-blue through the outer layer. While many such sandwiched bottles do have colourless glass outer layers, others have transparent colours, adding considerably to the potential for variation of the sandwiched colour. This is illustrated by Treasury 5, no. 728, which has a transparent emerald-green outer layer. The present example, however, is among the more spectacular bottles in this broad range, of a rare colour combination, and certainly as striking as Treasury 5, no. 728.


夜宿琉璃國， 沉沉水精宮

夾在二層純藍色透明玻璃中的蒼白色含米色條紋與黛綠色斑的半透明玻璃；平唇、平底

1720～1840
高：5.72 厘米
口經/唇經：0.69/1.58厘米
蓋：紅玉髓，描金青銅座
狀態敘述：沿唇和沿底都有磨修的小缺口，因而形成的小凹並不引人注目；一般相對的狀態：良好

來源：
Hugh M. Moss, Ltd (1978)
Gerd Lester
文獻﹕
Arts and Antiques, 1983年，7月～8月， 頁71
Kleiner 1987, 編號73
Arts of Asia, 1990年9 月～10月，頁97，圖31
Treasury 5, 編號727
展覽﹕
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 倫敦, 1987年10 月
Creditanstalt, 維也納, 1993年5月至6月

說明：
這是清朝前半期最普遍的夾層玻璃；看兩側面就能了解到，它是模子裏吹成的。從上俯視，可以看清楚，兩正面逐漸收斂的樣子，只用剪刀與鉗子成型很難，吹進模子裏倒容易。外壁的模緣痕跡都被雕工磨平了，而因為器壁外層比較厚，也吹得比較平均，修磨處看不出顏色有甚麼變淡了，也只有極其細微的棱線。查內壁才是水落石出了﹕有一道小溝沿著兩片模子間的縫隙。

這種玻璃煙壺出現在很多早期的收藏系列。雖然清朝末期可能還有所製造，但還是它們代表十八世紀與十九世紀初的風尚的可能性較大。維多利亞和阿爾伯特博物館收藏幾件，而它們原來是古老的實用地質學博物館藏，1901年才轉移到維多利亞和阿爾伯特博物館。因為它們不屬於礦物類，大概是1880年以前收集的。參照White 1990, 插圖66（編號5為同類玻璃）、插圖67。

曾有人描述本壺外層為無色玻璃，但注意到唇面呈現各層玻璃的彥顏色，可以看出外層是透明的純藍色玻璃。雖然很多夾層玻璃煙壺確具有無色的外層（如Treasury 5， 編號728的透明鮮綠色外層），有色的外層也不少。夾層玻璃壺外層具有顏色的話，中層顏色變換選擇就多起來，本壺的顏色配合比較獨特，是這類鼻煙壺最驚人的其中之一，跟Treasury 5， 編號728那件相比，絲毫也沒有遜色。