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Lot Essay
See lot 86 for a similarly decorated Qianlong mark-and-period Beijing enameled metal snuff bottle made at the Palace Workshops, a likely source of inspiration for the present lot, although the images are reversed.
Other bottles from this group are illustrated in B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, nos. 285, 286 and 297; in Pi Yen Hu. The Chinese Snuff Bottle, exhibition catalogue cover; Sotheby's London, 23 March 1988, lot 406; Christie's, Hong Kong, 2 October 1991, lots 1148 and 1151; and discussed by E. Curtis, "Comparisons", JICSBS, Autumn 1989, pp. 20-22.
The enamels and style suggest a date some time after demand for Palace-style enamels was fuelled by their appearance on the market after the sacking of the Summer Palace in 1860, but before the Second World War. They are commensurate in style with a wide range of wares made at that time copying directly from Palace originals. There is no evidence of this type of enameled porcelain having been made as snuff bottles from the Qianlong period. While decorated in the Palace style, the mark, with the reverse 'S' element in the character Qian is in a script and style derived from late-eighteenth-century Jingdezhen wares, representing typical stylistic confusion on the part of the makers of late-Qing and Republican fakes. The inscriptions are also a latter addition and do not appear on the eighteenth-century originals. Further evidence for a late-nineteenth-century date is the reversed image. This appears to have been a response to the European demand for pairs, as collectors of the period were fond of displaying things in cabinets where pairs could be balanced against each other.
Other bottles from this group are illustrated in B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, nos. 285, 286 and 297; in Pi Yen Hu. The Chinese Snuff Bottle, exhibition catalogue cover; Sotheby's London, 23 March 1988, lot 406; Christie's, Hong Kong, 2 October 1991, lots 1148 and 1151; and discussed by E. Curtis, "Comparisons", JICSBS, Autumn 1989, pp. 20-22.
The enamels and style suggest a date some time after demand for Palace-style enamels was fuelled by their appearance on the market after the sacking of the Summer Palace in 1860, but before the Second World War. They are commensurate in style with a wide range of wares made at that time copying directly from Palace originals. There is no evidence of this type of enameled porcelain having been made as snuff bottles from the Qianlong period. While decorated in the Palace style, the mark, with the reverse 'S' element in the character Qian is in a script and style derived from late-eighteenth-century Jingdezhen wares, representing typical stylistic confusion on the part of the makers of late-Qing and Republican fakes. The inscriptions are also a latter addition and do not appear on the eighteenth-century originals. Further evidence for a late-nineteenth-century date is the reversed image. This appears to have been a response to the European demand for pairs, as collectors of the period were fond of displaying things in cabinets where pairs could be balanced against each other.