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Lot Essay
This bottle is painted on either side with scenes from the play The Romance of the Western Chamber, written by Wang Shifu in the Yuan dynasty. Set in the Tang dynasty, the story tells of the romance between Zhang Junrui and Cui Yingying. While on his way to take the civil service examination, Zhang was instrumental in rescuing Cui Yingying from a group of bandits. Cui's hand in marriage had been offered by her mother to whomever could save her, but she subsequently reneged on her promise.
This style of decoration began in the late Qianlong period at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen and continued well into the Jiaqing period. A Jiaqinq-marked bottle in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum of identical shape and also decorated with scenes from The Romance of the Western Chamber, and probably from the same set as the present bottle, is illustrated by M. Hughes, The Blair Bequest, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, Baltimore, 2002, p. 171, no. 212. Similar decoration, with underglaze blue borders picked out in gold enamel and the main decoration in famille rose enamels, can be seen on another Jiaqing-marked bottle in the J & J Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Vol. I, New York, 1993, p. 365, no. 211, and sold in these rooms, 29 March 2006, lot 33.
This style of decoration began in the late Qianlong period at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen and continued well into the Jiaqing period. A Jiaqinq-marked bottle in the collection of the Princeton University Art Museum of identical shape and also decorated with scenes from The Romance of the Western Chamber, and probably from the same set as the present bottle, is illustrated by M. Hughes, The Blair Bequest, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Princeton University Art Museum, Baltimore, 2002, p. 171, no. 212. Similar decoration, with underglaze blue borders picked out in gold enamel and the main decoration in famille rose enamels, can be seen on another Jiaqing-marked bottle in the J & J Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle, The J & J Collection, Vol. I, New York, 1993, p. 365, no. 211, and sold in these rooms, 29 March 2006, lot 33.