A TRANSLUCENT AQUAMARINE GLASS 'COSMIC EGG', HAN DYNASTYChina, 202 BC to 220 AD. The ritual object of ovoid form, the deep-blue glass of high translucency.Provenance: Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022), who was a fashion stylist from Bologna, Italy. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother's business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than 60 years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom. Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, small losses, nicks, scratches, cracks, extensive signs of weathering and erosion. Displaying remarkably well overall.Weight: 852.2 gDimensions: Height 9.5 cmIn Chinese history, glass played a peripheral role in arts and crafts when compared to ceramics and metal work. The limited archaeological distribution and use of glass objects are evidence of the rarity of the material. Literary sources date the first manufacture of glass to the 5th century AD. However, the earliest archaeological evidence for glass manufacture in China comes from the Warring States period. The Chinese learned to manufacture glass comparatively later than the Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Indians. Imported glass objects first reached China during the late Spring and Autumn and early Warring States periods, c. early 5th century BC, in the form of polychrome 'eye beads'. These imports created the impetus for the production of indigenous glass beads. During the Han dynasty, the use of glass diversified. The introduction of glass casting in this period encouraged the production of molded objects, such as bi disks and other ritual objects.The cosmic egg is a mythological motif found in the cosmogonies of the Proto-Indo-European culture and several other major civilizations. Typically, the world egg is a beginning of some sort, and the universe or some primordial being comes into existence by "hatching" from the egg, sometimes lain on the primordial waters of the Earth. Eggs symbolize the unification of two complementary principles (represented by the egg white and the yolk) from which life or existence, in its most fundamental philosophical sense, emerges.In the myth of Pangu, developed by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Lao Zi, the universe began as an egg that symbolizes the primordial state of Taiji. A primeval hermaphroditic giant named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves: the upper half became the sky, while the lower half became the earth. As the god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally Pangu died and his body parts became the sun, moon, different parts of the earth and living things. The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng during the Three Kingdoms period. Recently his name was found in a tomb dated AD 156, during the later Han period.Literature comparison: Compare a related “glob” of glass, 3.5 cm high, in the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, accession number S2012.9.698. Compare a related glass bi disk, 17.8 cm diameter, dated to the Western Han dynasty, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 2006.404. Compare a glass bowl, 8.3 cm diameter, dated to the Western Han dynasty, excavated from Tomb 70 at Wenchangta, Hepu county, Guangxi, 1987, lent by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum, exhibited in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties, 3 April to 16 July, 2017.Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Galerie Zacke, Vienna, 5 March 2021, lot 48Price: EUR 7,584 or approx. EUR 8,600 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: An aquamarine green glass bi disk, Han dynasty Expert remark: Note the size (14.3 cm)Auction result comparison: Type: Remotely related Auction: Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2902 Price: HKD 620,000 or approx. EUR 108,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: A very rare early translucent aqua glass cup, Han dynasty Expert remark: Note the diameter (7.7 cm)漢代海藍寶石色玻璃蛋中國，公元前202 年至公元 220 年。半透明海藍寶石色玻璃，橢圓形禮器。 來源：Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022年) 收藏。Paolo Bertuzzi是來自義大利博洛尼亞的時尚造型師。他是 Hettabretz 的創始人 Enrichetta Bertuzzi 的兒子，Hettabretz 是一家著名的義大利時裝公司，客戶包括羅斯柴爾德家族、奧黛麗赫本和伊麗莎白泰勒。Paolo Bertuzzi 後來接手了他母親的生意並設計了獨家作品，其中一些作品在美國紐約大都會博物館服裝學院展出。六十多年來，他還是一位狂熱的古董收藏家。他的收藏包括古代和當代藝術，他編輯了兩本關於亞洲藝術的重要書籍，《Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery》-關於義大利和印度尼西亞政府合作的大規模考古項目，以及《滿者伯夷-來自被遺忘王國的傑作》。 品相：狀況良好，磨損、輕微的缺損、刻痕、劃痕、裂縫、風化和侵蝕跡象。 重量：852.2 克 尺寸：高9.5 厘米
