Dear Giovanni,
Indeed, a wonderful story. It is almost the mirror opposite of what happened to me with Peter Lee in Hong Kong in Nov.1981.
He offered me a superb bottle, ruby red overlay on 'camphor'/'snowflake' glass. It was of a continuous landscape with a river, truly some of the best carving I'd ever seen, and perfectly polished background surface. Mr. Lee told me that it was 18th C. Palace Workshops, and the colour and quality bore that out.
But the modern power station and power lines, carved as part of the design, were somehow at odds with the 18th C. dating. I guess I'm just too suspicious.
The price was US$1,800 and I'd have gladly paid it for a genuine 18th C. bottle of that quality in 1981. When I pointed out the 20th C. technology displayed on the bottle, Mr. Lee hurriedly put it away.
Stupidly, I did not think it through, or I'd have kept my mouth shut, and grabbed the bottle. Genuine Cultural Revolution period bottles in overlay glass are extremely rare - 3-5 are known and they were personally commissioned by Chairman Mao and made using genuine 18th C. 'blanks' found in the Palace storerooms - bottles made to be carved, but for whatever reason never carved at the time they were made.
There were also a few greyish brown Chalcedony bottles made for Mao, with delicate floral designs and inscribed with poems and sayings by Chairman Mao - my good friend Bernie Wald has one. Again, there are 3-5 of these known. It's believed that all these bottles were made to be presented as gifts to special 'foreign friends' of China.
So you were sold an old bottle as new for a low price; whereas I was offered a relatively 'new' bottle (5-8 years old when offered to me), at what I thought a high price for a 'fake' (modern bottle trying to pass as 18th C.), but in reality a rare CR subject bottle.
Best,
joey