An Amethyst-Purple Glass Snuff Bottle Qing Dynasty, 18th / 19th Century

Robert Hall, London, 1985.

Moss et al., 1996-2009, vol. 5, no. 691.

Suffuse with air bubbles, some burst out on the surface. Numerous tiny scratches and abrasions from use. Otherwise, good condition.
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It is well established, on the basis of records relating to the early Yongzheng era, that purple glass and enamels were being produced at that time and presumably earlier.

An intriguing feature of this bottle is the unusual depth of the glass at the base With nephrite snuff bottles, this was apparently a feature of the palace workshops during the eighteenth century, and this example may be an attempt to reproduce the same characteristic in glass. This feature is insufficiently common in glass bottles, however, for us to ascribe it great significance in making an attribution. Quite possibly it evolved naturally out of the blowing process, and represents no more than the potential for offsetting a natural bubble of air against a formally symmetrical exterior shape. The depth of the base between interior bubble and exterior foot rim here is 6 mm - more than ten per cent of the overall height of the bottle.