**A FINE AND VERY RARE IMPERIAL YIXING STONEWARE SNUFF BOTTLE

Yixing in Jiangsu province gives its name to this distinctive stoneware. In production for nearly a thousand years in the same place, Yixing wares only came into artistic prominence in the later Ming dynasty, when it was adopted by the scholar class as a suitable material for teapots and thence for other items for the scholar's studio. In snuff bottles, slip-decorated wares were one of three types popularly produced, the others being enameled and plain pottery wares. Slip is simply a watered-down version of whatever ceramic is being used, which can be applied like a thick paint or used for gluing segments together.

The Qing Emperors were surrounded by the intellectual elite of China, many of whom would have been devotees of the scholarly wares of Yixing. It stands to reason that some of these scholarly individuals would have had direct connection to various top Yixing potters, thus creating the conduit for occasional, specific Imperial orders. The kilns were first ordered to produce wares for the Qing court in the late Kangxi period. These comprise a small group of wares, now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which were sent to the Palace workshops to be embellished with famille rose enamels. See K. S. Lo, The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day, pp. 133-35, pls. 60-4. All of these wares are marked Kangxi yuzhi ('Made by Imperial command of the Kangxi Emperor') with a few examples known with Qianlong reign marks.

Recent research suggests that these slip-decorated snuff bottles began earlier than was previously thought. Along with the enameled wares, they appear to have been first produced during the latter part of the Qianlong reign. The only other snuff bottle marked simply 'Yuzhi' (from the Bloch Collection, illustrated by R. W. L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 23) can now be confidently dated to the late-Qianlong reign, which is also the most likely date for the present example.

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.