XINQUAN, JINGDEZHEN KILNS, DAOGUANG SIX-CHARACTER INCISED SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD, DATED 1821

This extraordinary bottle is one of the earliest identifiable porcelain examples by an individual carver signing his name. It is also one of the landmarks of carved porcelain bottles, as it not only provides a precise date of production by the combination of a cyclical date and the reign mark on the foot, but also a place of manufacture, Zhushan in Xinping, another name for Jingdezhen, the great center of porcelain production in China. Unfortunately, however, we are not provided the family name of the carver, Xinquan.

The rich, mottled-green enamel, which so effectively enhances the raised decoration on this charming bottle, is almost certainly a reference to jadeite. Two other dated works by Xinquan are recorded, including one covered in an enamel imitating jadeite and dated to 1819, in the Bloch Collection, illustrated in Chinese Snuff Bottle: A Miniature Art from the Collectino of Mary and George Block, no. 188; the other example covered in a yellow enamel and dated to 1824, illustrated in Hidden Treasures of the Dragon: chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collections of Humphrey K.F. Hui, Margaret Polak and Christopher Sin, no. 181, where the date was should have been 1824. A carved porcelain bottle covered in a green glaze was illustrated by Marcus B. Huish in 1896 in the article, 'A Little Appreciated Side of Art. Chinese Snuff Bottles', The Studio, June 1896, p. 16, fig. 16.