China, Han dynasty (202 BC to 220 AD). The ritual object of ovoid form, the deep-green glass of high translucency.

Condition: Good condition commensurate with age. Extensive wear, small losses, nicks, scratches, cracks, extensive signs of weathering and erosion. Displaying remarkably well overall.
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.

Weight: 898.3 g
Dimensions: Height 10 cm

In 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.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Galerie Zacke, 9 March 2023, lot 146
Price: EUR 2,860
Description: A translucent aquamarine glass ‘cosmic egg’, Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form and size (9.5 cm). Note the color of the glass.