IMPERIAL, JINGDEZHEN KILNS, JIAQING FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK IN IRON RED IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1796-1820)

This bottle is one of a rare group of sets created at the imperial kilns in imitation of cloisonné. Most of these sets are in the imperial collection in Taipei. Versions exist in the present quadrilobed shape, double-gourd form, a bulbous pear shape, and a lobed meiping form, although the present shape appears to be one of the rarest. A double-gourd example with a Jiaqing mark is illustrated in Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 6, Part 2, Hong Kong, 2008, pp. 558-559, no. 1251, where the group is discussed.

For a quadrilobed meiping-form bottle see Geng Baochang and Zhao Binhua (eds.), Zhongguo biyanhu zhenshang (Gems of Chinese Snuff Bottles), Hong Kong, 1992, no. 133. Sets from the National Palace Museum, Taipei are illustrated in Snuff Bottles in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1991,p. 120, no. 84, (bulbous pear shape), p. 122, 124, nos. 86 and 88 (double-gourd-form).