IMPERIAL, JINGDEZHEN KILNS, QIANLONG FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD, 1795-1799

Finely painted in black enamel, the scenes on this bottle were likely inspired by literati ink paintings. a related bottle dated 1765-1799 painted with similar scenes is illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 6, Part 2, Arts of the Fire, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 358-9, no. 1159, where the authors note, that this unusual style, "seems perhaps a little more likely to have come from the latter part of the Qianlong reign, while the emperor was still closely involved in developing new types and designs of snuff bottles and still vitally interested in the art form. His son does not appear to have shared his love of innovation in art and matched neither his creativity nor output." The authors base their dating of the Bloch bottle on a related bottle in the Imperial Collection that bears a Qianlong gold-enameled reign mark.