Gourd-Shaped Snuff Bottle Imitating Agate

This gourd-shaped bottle was blown from imitation agate glass, with molten aventurine glass fragments rolled onto the surface to create sparkling inclusions. The imitation agate produces colourful striations that swirl around the glittering inclusions, giving the piece a radiant and refined appearance.
In the early Qianlong years, Wendulina glass (a transliteration of aventurine) was successfully made at the imperial glassworks under the guidance of French missionaries. Because of its hardness, aventurine glass was difficult to blow; most extant gold-spatter glass objects are carved using jade-working methods. Some objects were made by applying aventurine plaques to metal bodies, while rare examples, such as this snuff bottle, were created by fusing aventurine fragments into molten glass.