Lapis Moon

Probably Beijing, possibly Palace Glassworks, 1740-1830
Height: 5.72 cm
Mouth/lip: .6/1.82 cm
Stopper: ruby; gilt-silver collar.

Provenance:
Robert Hall, May 2012
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

 

Translucent ultramarine-blue glass with an inner layer of a paler colour (sutao); with a slightly concave inner lip and flat foot.

Sutao is the term applied to layered glass if left uncarved to reveal the inner layer, a common practice at the Imperial glassworks of the eighteenth century.  The intense, lapis-blue colour here is unusual, and in this case striking.

Alexander Whittaker