A FINE AND RARE 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' ENAMELED COPPER BOTTLE

IMPERIAL, GUANGZHOU WORKSHOPS, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A FINE AND RARE 'EUROPEAN-SUBJECT' ENAMELED COPPER BOTTLE
Imperial, Guangzhou Workshops, Qianlong four-character mark and of the period (1736-1795)
Of ovoid form, delicately painted on one side with a European lady wearing a pink dress and blue shawl affectionately holding a young boy in her arms, the other side with a lady wearing a yellow-collared mauve dress, her hair worn in a high chignon, and a young girl holding a bird above her head, both scenes painted within shaped oval panels between lotus petal borders encircling the base and shoulder and scroll bands around the neck and foot, gilt-bronze stopper
1 7/8in. (4.7cm.) high

Provenance

Edward T. Chow Collection.
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 5 May 1994, lot 1564.

Lot Essay

For other Guangzhou enamel bottles bearing Qianlong marks and decorated with European ladies with children and other European imagery, see B. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, p. 271-272, nos. 984 and 992, and p. 284, no. 1026; R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 12, no. 11; M. Hughes, The Blair Bequest: Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, p. 248-249, no. 347; and Chang Lin-sheng, Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991, p. 82, nos. 8-10.

Compare, also, the Guangzhou enamel bottle decorated with scenes of a European lady and child and painted in a similar style, but the lady depicted decollete, sold in these rooms, 2 December 1993, lot 467.

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