IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN BLUE ENAMEL AND OF THE PERIOD, 1770-1799

Details

**AN UNUSUAL BEIJING ENAMEL SNUFF BOTTLE
IMPERIAL, PALACE WORKSHOPS, BEIJING, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN BLUE ENAMEL AND OF THE PERIOD, 1770-1799
Of compressed form with flat lip and recessed foot surrounded by a footrim, the body finely painted in famille rose enamels with a continuous design of three pairs of birds (two orioles, two paradise fly-catchers, and two pheasants) in a landscape with a pine tree, roses, asters and begonias, the neck encircled by a band of leiwen between two bands of diagonal lines, above a ribbon of blue and yellow dots, the base encircled by a band of pink dots, the foot inscribed with a four-character mark in blue enamel, Qianlong nian zhi (Made in the Qianlong period), gilt-metal stopper
2 in. (5.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Hugh Moss Ltd.

Exhibited

Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver, 1992.

Special notice

Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

There is a series of Beijing enamel snuff bottles which can be dated to the last decades of the reign, among which are several of varying shapes decorated with a similar design of pairs of birds, representing marital harmony.

See the exhibition catalogue, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Snuff Bottles of the Ch'ing Dynasty, p. 51, nos. 14 and 15; and for a third, see R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, p. 9, no. 8. A fourth bottle in the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, Seattle Art Museum, has a Jiaqing reign mark, which reinforces the dating of the group to the late eighteenth century.

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