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Lot Essay
This bottle is one of several known examples of white glass double-gourd-shape decorated with famille rose enamels on an enameled yellow ground. All of these examples were made in the Beijing Palace workshops during the Qianlong period, and all display different combinations of flowers. There are two other such snuff bottles from the J & J Collection, illustrated by Moss et. al., The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, pl. 190, and sold in these rooms, 30 March 2005, lot 22 (decorated with crab apple and prunus), and pl. 191 (lilies and roses). Cf. a few other examples, one illustrated by B. C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, no. 968; one illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 14; one of a pair illustrated in The Barbara Hutton Collection of Chinese Porcelain, p. 9; and two in the Beijing Palace Museum, one with peonies and the other with chrysanthemums, both illustrated in Snuff Bottles, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 13.
Enameled glass snuff bottles are very rare when compared to the number of metal and porcelain enameled bottles, most probably because of the difficulty in controlling and firing the enamels perfectly on glass. The different colors of enamel would not all have reached maturity at the same temperature, which prompted Ye Bengqi to fire different colors in separate operations (see Hugh Moss, 'The Apricot Grove Studio. The Ye Family of Snuff Bottle Artists', part 3, JICSBS, Autumn 1985, pp. 116-130). Although it is not certain that the Beijing Palace workshops arrived at the same solutions as the Ye family, they would inevitably have encountered most of the same problems. One problem they might have faced would be over-fired enamels on one part of the vessel, while the other enamels were only just reaching maturity. If the temperature became too high, the glass body would soften and collapse, and this is evident in the number of enameled bottles which have clearly slumped in the firing. This bottle, however, is a superbly fired example with little of the standard pitting problems of enamels on glass.
The subject appears to be unique for the group and is unusual in completely filling the entire surface, and for the extension of the yellow ground over the outer foot rim. Had a second border been left at the foot it would have both crowded the design and stopped the downward flow of the energy of the tumbling creepers.
The double-gourd was a popular form for snuff bottles, appreciated not only for its tactile qualities when held in the hand, but for its auspicious symbolism, representing abundance and its association with Daoism. The gourd growing on a vine formed the rebus guadie mianmian ('may you have numerous descendants'). Here, however, we have the further combination of the five bats, which represent the five happiness of a perfectly fulfilled life: longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and a peaceful death. A happy marriage is the wish embodied in both the morning glory (qianniu hua) and the Chinese trumpet creeper (lingxiao hua) since their tendrils grasp objects or other plants with which they come into contact for support, a characteristic the Chinese deem to reflect the bonding relationship between husband and wife.
Enameled glass snuff bottles are very rare when compared to the number of metal and porcelain enameled bottles, most probably because of the difficulty in controlling and firing the enamels perfectly on glass. The different colors of enamel would not all have reached maturity at the same temperature, which prompted Ye Bengqi to fire different colors in separate operations (see Hugh Moss, 'The Apricot Grove Studio. The Ye Family of Snuff Bottle Artists', part 3, JICSBS, Autumn 1985, pp. 116-130). Although it is not certain that the Beijing Palace workshops arrived at the same solutions as the Ye family, they would inevitably have encountered most of the same problems. One problem they might have faced would be over-fired enamels on one part of the vessel, while the other enamels were only just reaching maturity. If the temperature became too high, the glass body would soften and collapse, and this is evident in the number of enameled bottles which have clearly slumped in the firing. This bottle, however, is a superbly fired example with little of the standard pitting problems of enamels on glass.
The subject appears to be unique for the group and is unusual in completely filling the entire surface, and for the extension of the yellow ground over the outer foot rim. Had a second border been left at the foot it would have both crowded the design and stopped the downward flow of the energy of the tumbling creepers.
The double-gourd was a popular form for snuff bottles, appreciated not only for its tactile qualities when held in the hand, but for its auspicious symbolism, representing abundance and its association with Daoism. The gourd growing on a vine formed the rebus guadie mianmian ('may you have numerous descendants'). Here, however, we have the further combination of the five bats, which represent the five happiness of a perfectly fulfilled life: longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue and a peaceful death. A happy marriage is the wish embodied in both the morning glory (qianniu hua) and the Chinese trumpet creeper (lingxiao hua) since their tendrils grasp objects or other plants with which they come into contact for support, a characteristic the Chinese deem to reflect the bonding relationship between husband and wife.