Message #46013

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Toni,

     I assume that you know that the 'Nine Tripod Cauldrons' (Chinese, "Jiu Ding"), are a historical myth, to the effect that one of the earliest kings of China received bronze from all nine original territories of China, cast 9 tripod cauldrons, and that they symbolised the right of an emperor to the 'Mandate of Heaven' (the divine right of kings).
 
     And they remained the symbolic objects which conferred that divine right, even though they were already lost by the time of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of a united China, ca. 221 BCE! Incidentally, he was the one whose burial in Xian has been visited by over 100 million people  since the site was opened in 1979 after being discovered in 1974 (in 2015, 5 million visited, but it has been decided to limit future visitors to 1 million a year, to preserve the site).

   Your bottle is 19th C. (ca.1820-1880), and a very nice example of Qing dynasty glass. There is gold in the ruby red glass 'mix'.

Best,
Shabbat Shalom,
Joey