A RARE ENAMELED BLUE-GROUND SNUFF BOTTLE

YIXING, 1800-1870

Details

A RARE ENAMELED BLUE-GROUND SNUFF BOTTLE
Yixing, 1800-1870
The hexagonal bottle is enameled with a magpie resting in the branches of a prunus tree with its head turned to gaze at its partner in flight, all reserved on a deep blue ground.
2¾ in. (7 cm.) high, coral stopper

Provenance

Sotheby's Billingshurst, 25 June 1991, lot 11.
Robert Kleiner, London, 1991.

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Lot Essay

Blue-glazed Yixing bottles with enameled decoration were first produced in the late 18th century and flourished in the later Qing dynasty. Another bottle with the same subject from the Holden Collection, was offered in these rooms, 21 March 2000, lot 23. Another was in the Kaynes-Klitz Collection, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3 November 1994, lot 1003.

Two magpies, shuangxi, form the rebus 'Double Happiness', and its combination with prunus, a symbol of longevity, would have made this bottle an appropriate wedding gift.

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