Eternal Governance

Attributable to the imperial glassworks, Beijing, 1770 – 1850
Height: 5.61 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.7/1.5 cm
Stopper: glass, carved with a coiled chi dragon with integral collar

Provenance:
Henry and Lynn Prager
Robert Kleiner (1998)
Bloch Collection
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2015, lot 54
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Published:
Moss, Tang , Graham, 2002 no. 958

Semi-translucent dark brown (appearing as black in normal light), and translucent white glass; with a flat lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding flat foot rim; carved as a single overlay with classical quotations in positive seal script on each side contained within a foliate panel, one followed by the seal yong 永 (‘forever’), and the other by the seal zhi 治 (‘govern’), the narrow sides each with handles made up of highly stylized shou (‘longevity’) characters, the central element replaced by a bat and the lower part by an endless knot.