Qianlong Mark, possibly Beijing Imperial workshops Of squat form with rounded sides and very short waisted and everted rim, with a simple flat circular base centered by the four-character wheel-cut mark, Qianlong nian zhi, the glass of an attractive transparent amber tone. 2 1/16in (5.3cm) across,转到 Chinese Works of Art Go
注脚:或為北京宮廷造 透黃料玻璃小瓶 《乾隆年製》款Another smaller water pot of pomegranate shape made from a similar transparent amber-yellow glass was sold at Christie's, New York, 15 September 2017, lot 1050. It too had a wheel-cut four-character Qianlong mark to the base. Transparent amber glass vessels appear to have been made in much smaller numbers than the ubiquitous opaque lemon yellow glass favored by the Imperial glass workshops. Yellow was one of the colors produced there almost immediately after their inception in 1696. No known surviving yellow glass predates the Qing period. Court records show yellow as a listed color from at least 1702. Yongzheng and Qianlong marked examples can be found in the Palace collection today and according to Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 5, Part 1, Glass, p. 133, no. 700, there is an intriguing reference from the Imperial archives for 1727 (seventh month, twentieth day) describing a color of glass as 'yellow like honey-amber. The yellow is unambiguous in this description, and since its transparency was one of the most revered qualities of amber, we may assume this to mean transparent yellow. The author's also illustrate a transparent amber-yellow glass bottle that they date to between 1720 and 1830, with a likely Imperial workshops provenance.