Details
A FAMILLE ROSE PORCELAIN SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, JINGDEZHEN KILNS, DAOGUANG FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1820-1850)
The bottle is decorated on either side with a circular panel encircled by an inscription. One side shows a scholar seated with various 'antiques' with a boy attendant looking after scrolls at his side, enclosed by an inscription reading, "Inscribed in a circle on the other side is a romantic poem." The reverse has a short inscription explaining that the surrounding poem can be read forwards and backwards in a variety of ways.
2 3⁄8 in. (6 cm.) high, enameled porcelain stopper
Literature
JICSBS, March 1976, p.18, no. 95.
R. Holden, Rivers and Mountains Far From the World - The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary, New York, 1994, pp. 280-281, no. 122.
Further details
My mother, Rachelle R. Holden, had an extremely discerning eye and impeccable taste, both of which are clearly reflected in this remarkable collection of 228 Chinese snuff bottles.
From the moment she saw her first snuff bottle, she was hooked. She purchased that bottle, a coral, at Ashkenazie & Co in 1974, and at that moment she became a “collector.” My father, Walter, good-naturedly supported her in her endeavors and helped fuel her passion. She continued to buy bottles over the next several years, but the true foundation of her collection came in 1981 when she and Walter flew to Honolulu to attend the highly anticipated auction of the well-known and much admired Bob Stevens collection.
In the years that followed, she and my father attended auctions around the world and also purchased from the best-known and most highly respected international dealers. For her, half the challenge was the thrill of the chase, ending in victory, with another new “baby” (as she called her bottles) added to the collection. She saw them as renditions showcasing in exquisitely carved or painted miniatures, the best of Chinese painting, poetry, and calligraphy, all of which are represented here.
While the collection is large and wide-ranging, it is carefully curated. Not one to simply sit back and admire her bottles, my mother spent many hours researching their history, provenance, and sometimes-subtle meanings and messages. When I worked with her on her book, Rivers and Mountains Far from the World: The Rachelle R. Holden Collection, A Personal Commentary, we both became intrigued with the rebuses represented on the bottles. Suddenly, she saw them from an entirely new perspective, as messengers of blessings, health, wealth, happiness, marriage, children, longevity, immortality, and so on. She often wondered, if only these bottles could talk, what tales they would have to tell and oh, the intrigue!
It is my hope that my mother’s “babies” will now go to new homes, where they will continue to be lovingly enjoyed, and that her legacy will live on through them.
Vanessa F. Holden
New York, New York
January 29, 2022
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