A FINE AND VERY RARE FAMILLE ROSE ENAMELED COLORLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
A FINE AND VERY RARE FAMILLE ROSE ENAMELED COLORLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE

Details
A FINE AND VERY RARE FAMILLE ROSE ENAMELED COLORLESS GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, ATTRIBUTED TO THE PALACE WORKSHOPS, QIANLONG BLUE ENAMEL FOUR-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1767-1799)

The cup-shaped lower half finely enameled with a continuous design of a pheasant perched on blossoming branches beside a flowering rose bush and asters growing amidst blue rockwork, the unusual umbrella-form shoulder decorated with a ruyi band suspending colorful loosely interwoven cords terminating in jewelled tassels, the yellow-ground neck with floral motifs, stopper
1 3/4 in. (4.43 cm.) high
Provenance
Lucille Parker
Sotheby's New York, 17 March 1977, lot 13 and frontispiece
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
Literature
JICSBS, June 1978, p. 23, no. 36
100 Selected Chinese Snuff Bottles from the J&J Collection, back cover and no. 38
Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J&J Collection, vol. 1, no. 197
The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, p. 74
AM (Art Market) Magazine, November, 2003, no. 10, p. 62
Oriental Art, Vol. XLIX, no. 2, 2003, p. 61, fig. 1
Exhibited
Christie's London, October 1987
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, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, 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

This very unusual shape is seen on another plain glass bottle illustrated by Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, p. 62, no. 80. Both the present bottle and the Bloch example have stoppers of the same design but in different material, suggesting that they are both original to their respective bottles. It is likely that this very rare shape was designed to fit into an outer container, perhaps a firm brocade pouch which would have brought the girth to the level of the upper, umbrella-like mantle and corresponded to the lace-like fabric of the shoulder decoration. The main decoration on the lower half of the snuff bottle would then be hidden from casual view, revealed only to those invited to take snuff with the owner. For a bottle held in a separate container, see Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, p. 77, no. 1.

This bottle is one of the earlier examples of the Guyue Xuan group, dating from the last decades of the Qianlong period and bearing a genuine Qianlong mark. This formally correct, precisely drawn, blue enamel mark was a standard on Palace enamels throughout the Qianlong period, but an exception for the Guyue Xuan group. Only a few of the earlier wares carry Qianlong marks rather than the iron-red Guyue Xuan mark which was introduced as an alternative from the late 1760s.

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