A red glass water dropper and spoon, Wheel-cut mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo Sotheby's
the transparent ruby-red globular body rising from a flat base to an incurved mouthrim, the base wheel-cut with a four-character reign mark within double squares, together with a metal spoon with an arched handle terminating with a dragon's head and a pearl set in its opened mouth; 5.6 cm., 2 1/4 in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD
Note: A slightly smaller yellow glass waterdropper, also bearing a wheel-cut Yongzheng mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Yang Boda, Complete Collection of Chinese Art. Gold. Silver. Glass and Enamel, vol. 10, Beijing, 1985, pl. 247. See also a glass pear-shaped vase of this red colour, included in the exhibition The Robert H. Clague Collection. Chinese Glass Of the Qing Dynasty, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, 1987, cat. no. 3.
Emily Byrne Curtis in Pure Brightness Shines Everywhere. The Glass of China, Burlington, 2004, p. 74, notes that only about one thousand glass items were manufactured during the Yongzheng reign in the Glass House, located in the Forbidden City.
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Apr 2014 - www.sothebys.com