An Overview of Qing Glass

20 only early reference to them is no more than the opinion of one late- nineteenth century scholar and, in any case, gives insufficient description to identify their works. Let us look instead at a private glassmaker about whose existence there is no doubt and whom we can date with astonishing accuracy for the field, although his attribution to Yangzhou has yet to be proven beyond a doubt. Once known as the “ Seal School, ” from the proliferation of seals that appear on the bottles, then as the “ Yangzhou School ” when a tentative, but reasonable attribution to that city was made for them, and now as the Li Junting School after its most prominent carver. There are two distinct styles for the school, a of high quality if the school of Li Junting, attributed to Yangzhou, is anything to go by, but separating it from the Imperial production that no doubt inspired it, seems currently impossible. What is certain is that those who claim to be able to identify the works of the Yuan, Xin and Le families of private glassmakers, supposedly of the Qianlong period, are deluded. The Fig. 77. Pink overlay on a turquoise-blue ground carved with a bow tied around a flowering peony and bamboo, 1750–1790. Bloch Collection. Fig. 78. Pale olive-green overlay on a transparent milky ground carved to illustrate a chi dragon and a bat, 1750–1790. Bloch Collection. Fig. 79. Sapphire-blue overlay on a milky-white ground carved to illustrate a butterfly flying over a rocky ground with flowering narcissus, 1750–1790. Bloch Collection. Fig. 75. Ruby-red overlay on a yellowish- white ground carved with a continous design of seven double gourds, 1750–1790. Bloch Collection. Fig. 76. Sapphire-blue overlay on a milky- white ground carved with a continous design of a kui or chi dragon, the base marked in regular script, Qianlong nianzhi , 1750–1790. Bloch Collection.