Footnotes

Treasury 5, no. 778


黃玻璃鼻煙壺
御製品、大概御用玻璃作坊作：1750～1800


Quadruple Gluttony

Translucent yellow glass; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding convex footrim; the shoulders carved with four mask-and-ring handles
Imperial, probably imperial glassworks, 1750–1800
Height: 5.9 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.6/1.01 cm
Stopper: glass; turquoise finial; turquoise collar
Condition: some tiny natural flaws in the glass (natural 'stones'—materials other than glass or imperfections in the glass—in the mix, accompanied by tiny air bubbles polished at the surface, entirely natural to the process of glassmaking), resulting in a single line of slightly different colour about 1.3 cm long; the bottle itself in perfect condition, although it may have been repolished at some time in the past


Provenance:
Christie's, London, 19 February 1986, lot 407

Published:
Kleiner 1987, no. 68
Treasury 5, no. 778

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

Commentary:
Only one other genuine example of this form is known although, as has so often been the case with published rarities, it was not long before copies began to appear. That genuine example resides in the Denis Low Collection in Singapore (Kleiner 1999, no. 65) and is a more straightforward version of the meiping (prunus-blossom vase) form. This example is the more formally elegant, with its exaggeration of the broad shoulders and narrower foot of the standard and popular palace shape. The colour, its typically courtly mask handles (based upon the gluttonous taotie) and shape all allow a reasonable attribution to the imperial glassworks, but we have exercised a modicum of caution, lest the complete removal of our finger from the dike of attribution result in an unmanageable flood.

Two features suggest that this is more likely to date from the latter part of the Qianlong reign, the first being that it exhibits double the standard number of mask-and-ring handles. Creative exploration of the decorative potential of the various elements of the design could be expected to evolve gradually, as the snuff bottle grew in importance as a collector's item, and new kinds of bottles became exhausted. We discussed this under Treasury 5, no. 774 in relation to mask handles, suggesting a Qianlong date for this transition, and the latter part of the reign as the likely date for its more extreme expressions. In imperial hardstone carving there are parallels in nephrite carvings attributable to the great hardstone carving bonanza of the late Qianlong period, fuelled by the massive influx of raw material from the newly conquered Xinjiang region in 1759 (see under Treasury 1, no. 114 and Moss, Graham, and Tsang 1993, no. 375). Multiple loose rings on vessels, with or without mask handles, are quite common from the mid-Qing period, and all would have been originally inspired by the ring handles - usually accompanied by a taotie mask - on ancient bronzes. Another indication of the late Qianlong period is found in the distinctly oval shape of the rings on this example (also discussed under Treasury 5, no. 774).

The colour of glass, from the darker range of yellow, is usually referred to as 'egg yolk' yellow although, as we have pointed out, the value of this term is limited, since egg yolks can vary from pale yellow to orange. A distinct change of colour occurs in the lower portion of the bottle, where the shape narrows. This may be the result of an inner layer of slightly paler colour being exposed by the carver as he crafted this unusual form. Slight variations of this sort are not uncommon in blown-glass bottles, since the various ingredients making up a particular colour may react to slight differences in heat environment between the inside and the outside of a blown form during manufacture.


四面饕餮

半透明黃玻璃；平唇、凸斂底、突出凸形圈足；肩雕四獸首啣環耳

御製品、大概御用玻璃作坊作：1750～1800
高：5.9 厘米
口經/唇經：0.61/1.01 厘米
蓋：玻璃、綠松石頂飾、綠松石座
狀態敘述：玻璃料有細小天然瑕疵和氣泡形成 1.4厘米長的一條線（是製作過程的自然副產物），壺的狀況完整無缺，或許製成幾年後又曾拋一次光

來源：
佳士得，倫敦，1986年2 月19日，拍賣品號407
文獻﹕
Kleiner 1987, 編號68
Treasury 5, 編號778
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：
具有此形式而非假冒的，只存一件，收藏於新加坡的Denis Low珍藏（Kleiner 1999, 編號65）。那件比較近於原型的梅瓶，本壺更是肩豐、腹下斂，正是宮廷偏愛的文雅樣式。顏色、以饕餮為原型的獸首啣環耳、形式等都形成一套宮廷式屬性，但今日一語輕交，他日駟馬難追，我們不敢武斷本壺必定是宮廷作坊作的。

本壺顯示兩點可測定為乾隆後期的指示屬性。獸首啣環耳多了一倍。煙壺越來越被視為珍藏品，而型式方面的創新卻變慢，於是設計元素的多樣化漸漸地發展起來。獸首啣環耳方面的進展大概是乾隆時期的事；最極端的多樣化大概是乾隆後期出現的（參閱Treasury 5，編號774的論述）。乾隆宮廷式白玉雕藝上呈現相同的發展，可歸因於1750年代以後閃玉湧入所引發的雕刻高潮，此其一也。所飾環耳是橢圓形的，此其二也；參閱上舉Treasury 5，編號774的論述。