THREE FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLES

1780-1900

Details

THREE FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLES
1780-1900
The first, 1830-1900, is of rectangular shape and painted on one side with a scholar observing a cat. The reverse is painted with a scholar holding a fan watching a crouching boy and small cat. The base is inscribed in iron red with an apocryphal Qianlong seal mark. The second, Imperial, Jingdezhen kilns, Daoguang four-character seal mark in iron red and of the period (1821-1850), is of flattened, ovoid form and painted on both sides with scenes of Zhong Kui with attendents. The third, Imperial, Jingdezhen kilns, Qianlong four-character seal mark in iron red, 1780-1799, is a miniature bottle of ovoid form, painted on one side with a scholar holding a scroll in a garden setting. The narrow sides are decorated with gilt floral scrolls reserved on a blue ground.
1 7/8, 2 3/8, and 1 3/8 in. (4.8, 6.1, and 3.6 cm.) high, porcelain, hardstone, glass stoppers (3)

Provenance

Rectangular bottle: Y.F. Yang, Hong Kong, 1981.
Daoguang bottle: Dave Kastan, China, 1980.
Qianlong bottle:
Christie's East, 11 June 1997, lot 212.
Jana Volf, New York, 1997.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

Pictured on the Daoguang bottle, Zhong Kui is one of the most popular Chinese mythological figures. According to legend, he appeared to the Tang emperor Minghuang in a dream, promising to protect the emperor from the demons he had been tormenting him. To celebrate Zhong Kui's exorcizing of the demons, the emperor ordered the famous painter, Wu Daozi, to paint his dream, and ordered the image of the demon-queller to be reproduced and distributed all over the realm to ward off evil spirits. Zhong Kui is a popular deity invoked in the autumn, and a bottle of this design would be particularly appropriate at this time of year to keep evil spirits away.
For a discussion of miniature snuff bottles, and a related example with un undecipherable two-character mark, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 6, Part 2, Arts of the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 565-9, nos. 1254 and 1255.

More from The Hildegard Schonfeld Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles

View All