Featured Glass budai / hotei / laughing buddha - how old?

I've found a couple of roughly similar pieces on the usual sale sites Etsy/Ebay etc... that say theirs are Meiji (just over 100 years old approx)period or thereabouts. I'm not sure - so I'm asking Has a rough pontil scar (even though it's solid glass).

About 4"(10cm0 tall, just over 5"(13cm) wide at the base. Weighs 34 ounces, 976 grams.

As always thanks for looking and thanks for the help!

 

I don't know if yours is actually old or not.
I can tell you that I go to wholesale gift shows where there are usually some Chinese importers. I have seen this green glass Buddha displayed.
So without having it in hand, I would be skeptical.

 

Oh and they also show him in the same green resin.

 

Agree there are literally tons of laughing buddhas imported every year for sale in gift shops etc... I'm not sure if he's old either - he was quite dirty before I cleaned him up but that's not a reliable indicator of any age. He's definitely glass though, not resin. In hand he has a much better quality look/feel than most of the recent knick knack type gift items I've seen a lot lately.

 

Oh, didn't realize you had it yourself. For some reason I interpreted your question as the item being online.

Wonder when they started making buddhas in glass? Particularly that green color. I'm sure there are jade ones, have always seen the rosewood ones.
Imports of Chinese items were popular in the 1950s, 1920/30s, and the late 1800s as well as the mid 1700s. Sorry, doesn't help much.

 

The other thing. If he were made in the Meiji period, wouldn't you think the pontil would have been finished off better. Pride of workmanship.

 

I have green glass buddhas bought on Singapore in the 1980s - nice little things, but new then.

 

I believe this is called "Peking glass," but don't know more than that.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pek...hpPeAhXDneAKHU9wAZ4Q_AUIDygC&biw=1242&bih=606

 

Thanks Pat, I've definitely seen them listed as such online, but I have a suspicion it's a term that's been applied to many more types of glass than actually are peking glass - at least from what I've learned on this site and doing a bit of reading about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_glass

 

This one is similar, although smaller(and less detailed), and they claim it's from the 50's 60's although I'd guess they are guessing:

https://www.rubylane.com/item/1417236-278/Vintage-Green-Peking-Glass-Seated-Buddha

 

Thanks OBB.

 

Ah, so it's used both as a technical, historical term and also a modern popular term. I'll have to remember that.

 

There appears to be a faint mold line across his head and down the edge of his robes, which would indicate a two-piece mold was used.

 

Yes there is a faint mold line as you described.

 

I was just about to comment that the one on ruby lane shows the same mold mark as yours does. See now you've already mentioned it.