Glass & Crystal

Peking, under the Qing, a glassmaker imitating jade and getting away with it. Antique glass and crystal come from China, India, Tibet, Nepal, Thailand and Europe. Peking glass vases and brush pots, often cased in layers and carved in cameo, sit beside rock crystal stupas and offering bowls from Himalayan Buddhist altars and Sukhothai-style Buddha figures cut in clear crystal. European pieces run from mouth-blown German Christmas ornaments and Munich-style angels to cut-glass decanters, brass tabletop magnifying glasses and Crookes radiometers, their vanes turning inside glass bulbs in sunlight.

Glass is about light. A Peking glass vase in imperial yellow or translucent green glows in a bathroom niche; rock crystal throws small rainbows across a white lacquer console; a radiometer spins quietly on a windowsill, going nowhere.