DAOGUANG (1821-50)

The design of this bottle is based on a European pocket watch. European watches were probably introduced at Court by the Jesuits and gathered much favour from the Kangxi period onwards. The fascination with them quickly spread into the production of snuff bottles, where their unusual basic outlining, often octagonal, was transplanted to glass and enamel bottles. Compare two similar Qianlong examples, one from the Bloch Collection, illustrated by Robert Kleiner in Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, London, 1987, p. 164; the other from the Blair Bequest, illustrated by Michael Hughes in Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, 2002, p. 282.