Jim Peake
Head of Department
Lot 16
A very rare French red 'agate' wine bottle, late 18th century
19 November 2025, 10:30 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£1,500 - £2,000
Ask about this lot
A very rare French red 'agate' wine bottle, late 18th century
Marbled in shades of opaque 'sealing wax' red, the cylindrical body with sloping shoulders and narrowing inwards towards the base, the long tapering neck applied with a string rim, with a very deep basal 'kick-up', 25cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
With Asprey, Sotheby's, 19 December 2001, lot 989
Long before Friedrich Egermann developed lithyalin glass in the 19th century, Johann Kunckel and others had experimented with glass in imitation of hardstones. While the form of this curious bottle strongly suggests a late 18th century French origin is most likely, a small number of early 18th century vessels in remarkably similar marbled red 'agate' glass are recorded, all thought to be of German origin. See for example the tankard in Corning Museum of Glass (inv. no.79.3.495), that sold by Christie's on 3 December 2013, lot 161, and the large goblet sold by Bonhams on 18 May 2016, lot 41. The present bottle would appear to be unique.