Very Rare Crizzled Chou (Zhou) Lo yuan Signed and Dated 1887 Chinese Snuff Bottle

By far my best bottle as a result of "going on the hunt" !!

Very Rare Crizzled  Chou (Zhou) Lo yuan. Signed and Dated 1887

For additional and larger images, here is a slideshow...

A little about crizzling :

Early Chinese glass tended to suffer from crizzling or 'glass sickness' leading to fine cracks forming in the surface making it look like frosted glass. Due to an incorrect chemical composition notably excess alkali. Sometimes seen on ancient glass. The surface feels moist, and the glass will eventually decompose and crumble. The exception being Chinese glass where it is thought to be less common in post 18th century glass.

During the early years of Qing glass making, Kangxi through Qianlong (1662-1795), there was much experimentation. Glass was made to resemble other materials like crystal, jade, or marble. The crizzling and bubble pattern seen on the clear bodies also appears to to mimic crystal.

It is worth mentioning that such clear glass bottles were intended to be full of snuff powder which would have colored the inner surface, in effect turning into an opaque colored ground. Without the snuff, we are able to appreciate the distinctly positive textural dimension of the crizzling on the interior - a standard on early colorless and transparent glass from the Imperial glassworks, which persisted occasionally into the Qianlong reign and occasionally beyond.

This condition has been variously described by the Chinese as cracked ice, fish scale, ice crack, fish net, and sea spray.