At some time during the latter part of the nineteenth century, Japanese workshops began to expand their repertoire of forms to include snuff bottles, most likely in response to the growing demand from Western collectors. The earlier group of Japanese bottles may be divided into two main categories. The first composed of distinctly Japanese types which were sometimes signed by their makers; while the second category consisted of copies of Chinese types which usually bore Qianlong marks, as is the case with the present lot.

This exquisitely carved bottle is also part of the early group whose stylistic inspiration was the ivory and lacquer bottles of the Beijing Palace workshops of the late Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. The influence of the Imperial ivory group is apparent in the depiction of the figures in the covered boat set at an exaggerated angle on the plane of the water. For an example of the ivory prototypes, see Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle. The J&J Collection, 1993, vol. 2, no. 285. The subject on the reverse of the bottle of the boy playing the flute while precariously balancing on the back of a buffalo is a popular one in Chinese art and was popularized in Southern Song academic painting; while the style of execution is undoubtedly taken from Palace lacquerware.

This bottle belongs to the superb group of Japanese bottles in lacquer and ivory characterized by its exquisite carving, both technically and sculpturally; by its use of several colors; by exotic and matching stoppers, usually in several colors; by the use of horizontal, four-character reign marks either in regular or seal script based on Palace style; and by the thin bronze lip of those with a lacquer neck.