A MOULDED FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE
A MOULDED FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE

Details
A MOULDED FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, 1851-1865

The design elements moulded and painted in bright enamels to depict a five-clawed dragon chasing a flaming pearl amidst colourful ruyi-shaped clouds, the base inscribed Guanyao neizao, 'Made in the Official Kilns', the lip gilded, stopper
2 3/8 in. (6.08 cm.) high
Provenance
Ambassador T. T. Li, Shanghai, before 1939
Literature
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 1, no. 241
The Art of Chinese Snuff Bottle, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, p. 92
Exhibited
Havana, Cuba, 1945
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, 1968
Christie's New York, 1993
Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997
Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997
Naples Museum of Art, Florida, 2001 - 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon, 2002
National Museum of History, Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003

Lot Essay

Rather than bearing an Imperial reign mark, the present bottle and others of its group are the first to identify the Imperial kilns with the reference 'official kilns'. It has been suggested that this mark was probably used at the Imperial kilns when the Taiping rebels were in control of the kilns at Jingdezhen and the surrounding area, raising considerable problems of protocol in marking porcelains.

For other very similar bottles, see the one sold in our London Rooms, 9 October 1974, lot 38, also illustrated in JICSBS, June 1977, p. 13, no. 29; one illustrated in Chinese Snuff Bottles No. 6, C35; and another sold by Sotheby's London, 6 May 1986, lot 357. All bear the same mark and may have been made using the same mould. There are also three carved versions known: the first covered with a yellow enamel was sold by Sotheby's London, 3 February 1981, lot 42; and the second, signed Rongjing zuo ('Made by Rongjing'), has been in the Victoria and Albert Museum since 1883, and is illustrated by Helen White, Snuff Bottles from China. The Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, p. 243, no. 1; and the third, almost identical in design to the present lot, with a Liquan zi zhi mark, is illustrated by Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The White Wings Collection, no. 81.

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